Black Lives Matter
When news first broke of George Floyd’s death, and the public outrage that followed, I was disturbed….extremely disturbed. Though I am a minority when I attend school for nine months out of the year in America, I was born and raised in South Korea, till I decided that I would like to continue my education abroad. As a South Korean living in South Korea (a country that prides itself on its ‘homogeneity’) meant that I had never experienced any outright racism. Sure, I attended an International school for all of my Elementary education. Still, if anything, the foreign teachers and the few foreign friends I had would always praise me for the ‘Asian qualities’ that Asian kids everywhere have been boxed into. Though it was certainly stereotyping, it wasn’t something that I was consciously aware of until I became older.
I remember visiting my cousins in Texas one summer many years ago. It was my first visit to America without my parents, and it wasn’t for a week but for the whole summer. After a day of playing in the sweltering Texan heat, a group of us- consisting of my brother, cousins, and their friends — made our way to one of our new friend’s houses to have an authentic American dinner. As we entered the pristine front entrance, I noticed a beautiful rug that ran across the front door. To my horror, the sweaty group of kids tromped upon it with their dusty shoes without a care in the world and proceeded noisily into the kitchen. Amazed, my brother and I stopped to carefully take off our shoes and joined the rest of the kids in the kitchen where the grandmother was doling our juice and soda to the chattering bunch. As we had been taught to do, my brother and I immediately bowed deeply in greeting. All talking stopped immediately. My older cousin looked over at us rather embarrassed and quickly explained to the surprised grandmother that we were visiting from South Korea. She looked us over from the top of our red faces to our shoeless feet. Then she turned back to the other kids and said, “Why can’t you kids be more like the Chinese. Look how respectful and clean they are!”
In the school where I am now, they teach us the importance of inclusivity and how important it is to be respectful and kind to one another. When I interact with locals in the area, they are always helpful and friendly. Before I left for America, one of my secret fears was experiencing racism. South Korean papers are always full of stories about Korean exchange students going abroad and being attacked or called names. To my relief, my fears proved unwarranted. Maybe some might say that I have been living in a bubble all my life, and maybe that’s true. The America that I have known till now has been one of generosity, courtesy, laughter, and respect. I think that is why the death of George Floyd was so shocking; it didn’t quite fit with America I have come to love as a second home.
As a minority, I feel deeply saddened that there is still such blatant injustice and inequality because of the color of your skin. Though I will never understand what it means to be black in America, that cannot stop me from empathizing and recognizing when a great wrong has been done and doing something about it. Though the #BlackLivesMatter movement started in America, it is a movement that should have significance for everyone in the world. The fact that this kind of systemic racism still exists on our planet needs to be addressed once and for all.
While many are asking why the movement has reached such momentum now, I think the bigger question is, ‘Why has it taken so long for this movement to finally reach the heights it has?”. I’m not sure what I will do, but I am determined not to sit quietly to the side and say, “It doesn’t have anything to do with me.” I want to be able to look at myself and say that when it truly mattered, I was there doing my small bit!
