Few groups, including foreigners, I think, are asking for special treatment by Korea, its people, government, or its media. But when it comes to becoming the symbolic whipping boy — for no good reason — for all of society’s ills, from having false degrees, lower sexual mores, the molestation of children, drug abuse, and even for being the apparent conduit for HIV into the country, a line must be drawn.
There is no statistical proof — in fact, there is ample evidence to the contrary — that foreigners should be singled out as any of these things, as the living embodiment of societal concern for these particular ills. But what is particularly easy to do in a land with an immature and unprofessional news and broadcast media, as well as a population more than willing to believe whatever is said about societal outsiders, is to make the outsiders seem more alien, more deviant, more scary.
This is easier than looking inwards and facing societal problems straightforwardly. This is a culture that is not in the habit of doing so, in which even the law tends to work against embarrassing news exposes, distrusts investigative journalism, and doesn’t ask for evidence when the force of popular opinion happens to be in line with the news at hand.
Having come from a problematic relationship with government authority, a distrustful public, and a media tradition that doesn’t include the double-confirmation of sources, the printing of retractions, or demand high ethical standards when it comes to conflict-of-interest, it is not too much to say that much of what passes for news in this country would not get past the editor of a typical college newspaper in other, more developed nations.
But when it comes to singling out foreigners, a group with no previous power to fight or answer back, the Korean media has become absolutely notorious in its attacks on us, its defamation of our character, and shameless distortion of the truth, all just to get a rise out of the public. When it comes to dealing with foreigners, the Korean media is “yellow journalism” at best, or racist scaremongering at worst.
The time for sitting down and taking it has ended.
Harassment of foreigners, in this editor’s observation and opinion, has been increasing in recent years, along with a decreasing sense of morale among the foreign population. With the increasingly negative media reports about us, hagwons are reticent to hire male teachers out of fear they might sexually abuse children, and the hagwon has actually started to earn a more dastardly reputation than the clubs of Itaewon a couple decades past, which is no mean feat.
However, it is not surprising, given what the Korean media writes about us, as inherently alien, diseased, deranged, and dangerous. Let’s shine the light of simple truth on the Korean media’s lies about us. And in this editor’s experience, when the blinding light of truth comes up against the darkness in which lies, ill intentions, and deceit best festers, the victory of light is guaranteed. History shows this again and again.
Let’s bring light to the darkness of ignorance, disingenuous reporting, and sheer ill will. When both your primary weapon and best defense is the mere, simply truth, that’s a powerful thing to fight against. The liars and cowards who vilify us must know this, deep down — it’s just that we, as foreigners, were the easy kids on the playground to pick on. We have no advocates, no friends in the media. We are alien, unknowable, suspicious.
No more.
And the question to ask would be — would Koreans in other countries think any differently? Do they? Would they accept this kind of vilification were the tables turned? I think we all know the answer to that, and have seen cases of it in action.
So, let’s fight back with the moral rectitude of simply wanting to see the record, demanding proof, asking for a show of evidence, and the performance of logical, clear-headed thinking in this nation’s media.