Tag: Korean-Americans

Why do people have to act like jerks, if you don’t like the mask policy at H-Mart than don’t shop there:

A man who caused a ruckus after refusing to wear a mask at an H Mart in California was forced to leave the store as its manager and customers stood together to kick him out.

What happened: The incident occurred at the Korean American supermarket’s location in West Huntington Drive, Arcadia around 6:15 p.m. on Aug. 6. Emilie Tan (@emilieeetan), who was shopping with her boyfriend, managed to film parts of the chaos. Tan told NextShark that they first found the man arguing with the manager at the back of the store. At the time, the man was “already visibly aggravated,” yelling in the manager’s face and refusing to leave “because he didn’t want to wear a mask.”

Yahoo News

You can read more at the link.

Notice how the media has been making headlines out of every attack on Asian-Americans now?:

A beauty store owner was attacked inside her own store by two women in Harris County, Texas on March 17.Jung Kim, who is of Korean descent, asked the five women who knocked over the store’s wig displays to leave the premises. However, two of them doubled back and caused further destruction.Surveillance footage caught the moment one of the women attacked the 59-year-old, punching her at least eight times while shouting racial insults.

Yahoo News

Random crimes like this against Korean American business owners have been going on for a long time. Remember the LA Riots that targeted Koreatown, the Baltimore riots and Ferguson riots against Korean businesses, or the Korean-American gas station owner in Dallas who was called racist for defending his store from a criminal. Plus many Korean-American businesses were looted and destroyed during the Black Life Matters riots last summer. Where was the media defending Asian-Americans then?

Also notice how the criminals that attacked Ms. Kim in the above incident were black, but the headlines make no mention of that. Even the article makes no mention of their race, yet if a couple of white women committed this crime it is likely the headlines would talk about “white Kareans attack store owner”.

Here is a story about the “peaceful” protesters in Chicago and a Korean-American shop owner:

The crowd was growing impatient as Crystal Holmes fumbled with the keys to the store.

Dozens of people were swarming the street around Western Beauty Supply, the Chicago shop where Holmes works. She had persuaded some of them to let her open the store so they could rob it without breaking the windows.

“She’s taking too long,” someone yelled. “Let’s go in and get it.”

Western Beauty Supply sells products like wigs, hair extensions and combs mostly to Black women. Most of the employees, like Holmes, are also Black, but the owner is a Korean American man, Yong Sup Na.

When a few young men appeared outside the store earlier that evening in May, Na went out to speak with them. He offered some of them cash, and they walked away. At that point, Na told Holmes that he felt confident his business was safe. “They are not going to break into the store,” he told her.

A few minutes later, though, a larger group showed up. A woman snatched Na’s keys, but Holmes persuaded her to give them back. Then she ordered Na, her boss, to leave. “You don’t know what could happen,” she told him.

Even as Holmes tried to save the store from ruin that evening, when protests and looting followed the police killing of George Floyd, she understood what was causing the turmoil roiling Chicago and dozens of other cities.

“I understand where the rage is coming from,” Holmes, 40, said in an interview. “We don’t have any businesses in the community and we are getting killed by the police and killing each other, and we are just getting tired.”

New York Times

You can read more at the link, but I think there should be some self reflection here instead of blaming Koreans for being “insular” as described in the article.

How come a guy who came to the country in his late 20’s with no money and not speaking the language was able to become a successful shop owner who put his kids through college, but people with all the advantages of being born in the US could not? If you read the article there are some hints why.

All the looting going on is horrible for small business owners to include many Korean-Americans:

Nights are long these days for many Koreans in every corner of the U.S.

Rioting and looting have become nightly events in major cities and small towns alike, and Korean mom-and-pop stores are just some of the countless businesses that continue to get ransacked, robbed and destroyed by angry mobs all across the nation.

“This is just like the LA riots all over again,” said Nancy Kim, 44, who owns a clothing shop near Koreatown in Los Angeles. “I was only 16 when the riots happened here, but I still suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder from the horrifying scenes. I can’t believe almost 30 years later, we’re doing this all over again.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but according to the Joong Ang Ilbo the California National Guard has deployed to Koreatown which has prevented it from being attacked like they were back in 1992. Those riots led to the “Rooftop Koreans” meme.

There is no doubt there are stupid, racist people out there, but it seems to me the media is just eager to create another victim group and sensationalizing a few random incidents:

When Eddie Song leaves his Manhattan home, it can feel like heading into battle. The Korean American startup founder and avid rider dons his armored motorcycle jacket, motorcycle gloves, a skull face mask and a GoPro camera.

“The GoPro is on all the time whenever I leave the house now. Basically it’s a rolling camera,” Song said. “With the combination of looking intimidating and having the camera — if they pick a fight with me, they know I’m prepared.”

As the coronavirus first seen in China now ravages the U.S., Asian Americans are continuing to wrestle with a second epidemic: hate. Hundreds of attacks on Asian people have been reported, with few signs of decline. Rather than feel helpless, many are filming their interactions or carrying guns.

Associated Press

You can read more at the link, but the AP article of course gives the obligatory reference that this is all Trump’s fault for calling it the “China Virus”.

Here is an article about a Korean-American adoptee who recently had the opportunity to return to South Korea:

Then, last year, I embarked on a two-week trip to South Korea primarily to attend the International Korean Adoptee Association (IKAA) gathering, held every three years. During this time, more than 550 Korean adoptees from all over the world convened at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul to attend workshops and social events.

For many Korean adoptees (or KADs, as we often refer to ourselves), myself included, it was our first time returning to Korea since we were adopted as infants or children. I was careful not to make the assumption that Korea would immediately feel like home—after all, I had no active memories of the country, and I knew having unrealistic expectations would set myself up for disappointment. I wondered if it was indeed possible to become attached to a place that, for me, held so much history, yet so little familiarity.

What I found, in the end, was the bittersweet grief that comes with being reunited with your birth country. I discovered that it was possible to swell with immeasurable pride at the beautiful, resilient country I was born into, and in the next moment be filled with agony that I was denied the chance to be raised among my culture, my language.

Quartz

You can read more at the link.

Via a reader tip comes news that a Korean national with a US Green Card was recently convicted for illegally voting:

A permanent resident in North Carolina will not face prison time after she was illegally allowed to vote during three separate elections.

Hyo Suk George, 70, was charged with illegal voting by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after she reportedly voted in 2008, 2010 and 2016 in Columbus County. Instead of sentencing George to six months in prison, U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle fined George $100.
George arrived in the United States from South Korea in 1989. She got a green card in 1995 and has worked in housekeeping and fast food, her federal public defender Sherri Alspaugh said. She registered to vote “next to the senior center” after taking the advice of a town council member, according to the News & Observer.

In his ruling, Boyle also expressed frustration towards the elections board in Whiteville, North Carolina, because it allowed George to register to vote using her green card, Social Security number and driver’s license, the News & Observer reported.
“So they see a green card and say, ‘That’s OK’ because they don’t know what they’re doing,” the judge said. “They ought to be a little smarter than that.”

Newsweek

You can read more at the link, but this makes me wonder how much of this illegal voter registration is going on?

Also it shows the weakness of voter ID laws at polling stations when green card holders are allowed to register and polling stations usually require a driver’s license to vote which green card holders can get.

Didn’t know we had a day, but I’m happy to celebrate it. Hug a Korean American today! https://t.co/a3SsWl1AOJ

— Daniel Dae Kim (@danieldaekim) January 14, 2019

Fair. One isn't hearing much about the first Korean-American woman elected to Congress. https://t.co/rxtwYH6zEk

— the oranckay (@oranckay) November 9, 2018

We had an interesting post in the Open Thread about the mandatory service military obligation for dual US-ROK male citizens.  This posting from Ask A Korean highlights what the issue is about:

The unintended consequence of the 2010 law that, all of a sudden, it created a large number of Korean dual citizenship holders who did not even know that they were dual citizens. If you are a draft-eligible age, and you realized only recently that you were in fact a dual citizen, you cannot even renounce your Korean citizenship because of the 2005 law. The result:  we have a messed up situation in which diaspora Koreans, who may have never visited Korea and not speak a lick of Korean, may be draft eligible for Korean military. He can enter Korea freely, but may get stopped at the airport on his way out of Korea, like all other draft-eligible male Korean citizens.  [Ask A Korean]

Someone who is a dual citizen definitely faces the possibility of getting detained at the airport in South Korea because they have not done their mandatory military service.  I had to go deep into the ROK Drop archives to find this, but there have been examples of dual US-ROK citizens being detained at the airport in Korea despite being enlisted in the US military:

The Defense Ministry and the Military Manpower Administration may have to wait for years before they can get their hands on two Koreans who violated the military service law by enlisting in the U.S. Army.

The two Koreans aged 21 and 22 who have U.S. citizenship and residence respectively but retain their Korean nationality volunteered for the U.S. Army without performing their mandatory military service here, the MMA said Friday. Both were supposed to join the Korean armed forces in 2004 but both enlisted with U.S, forces instead. One instead went with them to Germany and both are now ironically with the U.S. Forces Korea as privates first class.  (…)

The first came to Korea on leave last June, and the travel ban stopped him from returning to his unit in Germany. He was indicted here the same month but the indictment was suspended because he serves in the U.S. military. He then transferred to the USFK. The MMA says it will make both of them serve in the Korean forces as well. Article 71 of the Military Service Law says those with dual nationality who violate the law must perform their military duties in Korea before they turn 35.

This dual citizenship issue should definitely be a concern for anyone with male children that may be considered dual citizens.  However, there is a way to renounce ROK citizenship at age 18 to ensure that the male child is not detained at the airport to do their mandatory military service in South Korea.  Here is the information posted on the US Embassy website for the Republic of Korea on this issue:

All malecitizens of the Republic of Korea (ROK), including dual nationals, have military service responsibilities in accordance with the Korean Constitution and the Military Service Law.