I read a news article last Saturday afternoon on an online Korean news site about a Filipina who was stabbed by a US soldier. I lost the link to that the same day since I was rushing to go out to meet friends. I just remembered it again today when I saw my Filipina classmate in our Korean class.
The news article reported that Pyeongtaek police are looking into a stabbing incident that happened in the wee hours of March 6th near Osan Air Base in front of a club. It said that a US soldier stabbed a Filipina, the ex-wife of his friend. Two guys, a Korean commander and a civilian, who answered her call for help were also wounded in the incident.
The online Korean news report said that she’s in critical condition as she lost a lot of blood since she was stabbed 18 times . I’m not sure about her condition now since there are no follow up reports available online.
Source: US soldier stabbed a club worker 18 times
Im surprised that postings like this dont get flood of comments from readers, unlike if its about cosmetics, clothes or actors.
Anyway, ive read that the pinay already gained consciousness, but still under life support (medical) devices. This is a typical crime brought about by extreme jealousy.
I wonder who’s going to handle the case then since there was no Korean involved aside from those two guys who helped her.
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oh, i hope she’ll really get well soon…
It make me sad.. I hope she will survive, pray for miracle..
Hi, this is off topic a bit, but I want to ask something from Filipinos living in Korea. I always read how terrible the treatment of Filipinos and other South East Asians by Koreans. That’s what most Westerners in Korea say, that Filipinos are treated virtually like slaves by Koreans who look down on them like dogs. I want to hear from the Filipinos in Korea because I’ve never heard from them. How accurate is this perception?
@ JJ: Surely that kind of treatment from Koreans do exist. But you don’t have to expect it from everyone you meet in Korea. I’m equally as afraid for Koreans who go here knowing that not only a handful of Filipinos hold acrimony towards our Korean friends.
I don’t know the story behind this. But it is supremely inhuman for that white animal to stab another person, regardless of whether the Filipina provoked him or not. I hope she gets to regain normalcy even after receiving 18 stab wounds.
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@ JJ: Yeah it does exist. I think there’s an entry on this site on “Korean haters”. Try to look for ti.
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The individual that stabbed the young pinay was not white! He is a black american who will pay for this heinous crime. I would be very surprised if he ever see`s the light of day past iron bars.
“I always read how terrible the treatment of Filipinos and other South East Asians by Koreans”
–Where?? How many reading materials you are referring to?? Your fate here (or to anywhere) will depend on how you behave (and blend with the culture), in the same way that a Korean who will behave bad in the Philippines will surely get a taste of hell from Pinoys.
Korea and their people is just like any other country. Love it or hate it. Its NOT a DREAMLAND, NOT a PARADISE and NOT HELL as well. Life is hard here, and things that people see in Korean soap operas are NOT real.
“That’s what most Westerners in Korea say, that Filipinos are treated virtually like slaves by Koreans who look down on them like dogs”
— I can assure you that claim is IRRESPONSIBLE (and dont generalize all Westerners).
–Besides, thats a racist comment. Any nationality will treat anyone as dogs if they behave as one. Germans, Japanese, Swiss, Israeli will treat any other nationalities as dirt if they (collectively) behave as one.
“”How accurate is this perception?””
– INACCURATE and STATISTICALLY insignificant.
“”But it is supremely inhuman for that white animal to stab another person, regardless of whether the Filipina provoked him or not””
–This is a racist comment. In fairness to all “whites”.
Besides, crimes like this happens in the Philippines on an everyday basis. Pinoys/Pinys are being killed everyday in our country ( by fellow Filipinos). Some are even more brutal than the case above.
Hundreds of thousands of pinoys being robbed in Jeepneys, FX’s, Buses, MRT’s/LRT’s by fellow Pinoys.
Thousands of children are being raped/molested by strangers, their own family members and sometimes their Pastor/Priests.
This crime has nothing to do with RACE. period.
Qouted from the same topic in Telemirror Korea forum
” info namin negro daw na taga morocco ang lalaki african xa hindi kano…”
“kawawa siya grabe kung makikita mo talaga parang patay na siya kc sa leeg at balikat ang saksak niya, sayang nga lang hindi kme pinapasok sa hospital nung sunday kc nasa ICU pa sya ng hankook hospital pinagbawal daw ng mga pulis ewan lang kung totoo o baka ayaw lang tlga nilang ilabas un.. “
Of course it isn’t. It doesn’t even connote a collectivity of people. White, in that context, functions as an adjective and does not mean “the” Caucasians; white person = “an” individual. I wonder why you fuss about racism and generalizations all the time. Talking about political correctness gone amok.
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–you are missing the whole point.
“White, in that context, functions as an adjective and does not mean “the†Caucasians; white person = “an†individual.”
— Come on, don’t play innocent. You described it as “white ANIMAL”. Its DEROGATORY collectively or individually.
How does it feel if you will read that one fellow pinoy (who committed a crime) will be called/described as a “brown monkey” (even if it was meant as an “adjective”?
“I wonder why you fuss about racism and generalizations all the time. Talking about political correctness gone amok”
— Its better to focus (or disagree) with the opinions per se, instead of wondering about the person who made that (or why he did that). Either you agree or disagree, but dont take it as personal. peace
Hi JJ,
“Filipinos are treated virtually like slaves by Koreans who look down on them like dogs” is quite a strong statement. If you took this line from a news report, the report may have been about Filipinos working in factories doing the 3D jobs (dirty, difficult and dangerous). I may or I may be working on a wrong assumption:-). But along this line of thought, some Filipinos do experience unfair labor practices from their employers. It is also a fact that there are MANY undocumented Filipinos here in South Korea who fall prey to these unfair labor practices… that’s the price one pays for being undocumented. But that would be true anywhere in the world.
Beyond the situation above, the treatment depends on one’s personal circumstances. but hey, why bother about how any nationality treats us pinoys? i go by this: i make them bother how i treat them:-)…
my apologies if i can’t give due credit, i forgot from where or from whom i read this from: “nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent”.
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@ wendy
– from Eleanor Roosevelt
Are the following racist then: black whore & white slut? I don’t think so. You see, there is a symbolic disjunction between “black” and “whore” & “white” and “slut”, which makes both un-racist and purely individual derogatory labels. To become racist, you need to associate an attribute of a race, say it’s color, to something negative, repulsive, bigoted. “Brown monkey”, on the other hand, is a racist label. It is so symbolically loaded–much like “redneck”–in that “brown” was taken as a trait of the SeAsian race and is coupled with “monkey”, which we all know we are strongly associated with. Thanks to the Western colonizers.
Madoff’s being called a “white devil” could have elicited a collective, racist protest. But did it? See, “white animal” leans towards a description of an individual wherein “white” is not pitted against Caucasians’ animalistic behavior in general but is rather intended to a single “white person’s” individual animalistic action. There’s no symbolic association between “Americans” and “animal”; “animal” and “murderers” come together much closer.
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“Your fate here (or to anywhere) will depend on how you behave (and blend with the culture), in the same way that a Korean who will behave bad in the Philippines will surely get a taste of hell from Pinoys.”
~>> I agree with arvinsign on this one, I’ve never had any bad experience with any korean here. The only time I was treated (kinda)bad was back in the Phils. by a korean priest! And yeah, I also gave him hell for that.
“black whore & white slut?”
— This i agree is sort of an adjective. Much more a colloquial way of describing someone referring to her job or indecent behavior. Irrelevant to my point.
“”Madoff’s being called a “white devil†could have elicited a collective, racist protest. But did it?””
— How did you know it did not?
“”“white animal†leans towards a description of an individual wherein “white†is not pitted against Caucasians’ animalistic behavior in general but is rather intended to a single “white person’s†individual animalistic action””
— The use of color of the skin to describe a person is always RACIST, either derogatory or not.
The article above refers to a heinous crime committed by an American Soldier and the victim is a Filipina (and is in no way near with the examples you have given, so the analogy is i supposed bad.
Now what i dont understand is “WHY” the sudden jump into a conclusion that this US soldier, is indeed a “white animal”.
Did you (or anyone) even read the papers? Do you know any details? If anyone has, please provide us.
What if the US soldier is a filipino too (since there are tens of thousands of pinoys in the US military)? Of course now we have some info from the poster above that the assailant is an African-American of Moroccan origin. But for me, i will describe it as “American” nothing more. Irregardless of whatever race that person has, i will not go over the issue of skin color.
Now thats my point. If anyone will jump into a conclusion immediately without any information on hand, then personal biases comes along. Its not only because it was mentioned “white” or described it as “white animal”. Its also because of jumping into a conclusion that it is a white person and omitting all other possibilities that it could be a Pinoy-American GI etc.
We have a very long list of atrocities in the Philippines committed by US soldiers. The most recent was the “rape” case in Subic. This kind of scenario somewhat paints a negative image of white americans (as well as others) in the mindsets of every Filipino. Now before anyone jumps into any conclusion or “strong” comment about something or someone, a little reading and research will surely help.
Peace
I wouldn’t rehash my argument that “white animal”, in the strictest sense, is racist. Prima facie, it is. Upon more intelligent inspection, it isn’t. And regarding the use of skin color, you can’t just dismiss my counter-examples as they made use of “skin color”.
There wasn’t a protest with racial undertones in defense of Madoff–not anything that I know of that warrants a big scale protest.
A Korean friend of mine told me that the guy was white. As there was lack of news (in English) on this incident, I took his word for it. I’m sure you’re not going to challenge sources of second-hand information as you yourself put enough confidence in them.
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I rest my case thus:
White slut, black whore, and white animal are all non-racist labels. You even defined them as such: “way of describing someone referring to his job or indecent behavior”, and by extension, in the case of “animal”, animalistic tendencies of a white person. Hence, white animal. There’s no significant lexical, moral or connotative difference among the three. On the other hand, “redneck” and “brown monkey” are both racist as I’ve already justified.
Animal can refer to people of all races; can you call Americans and Europeans monkeys? It should take a lot of creative effort I guess. Animal and white just don’t go well together to form a racist label unlike brown and monkey do. White animal debases only the individual concerned.
Quote: Now what i dont understand is “WHY†the sudden jump into a conclusion that this US soldier, is indeed a “whiteâ€.
Response: Red herring. We’re talking about the alleged racist nature of the term WA.-
Peace to you too Arvin. It’s been nice sparring with you.
Elliots last blog post..Around Namsan Park
“Upon more intelligent inspection, it isn’t”
— Well, thats your opinion, so i respect that. Obviously, i still dont agree, so that intelligent analysis/inspection you are saying is non sense for me.Simply, its your opinion against mine. Nothing more
“There wasn’t a protest with racial undertones in defense of Madoff–not anything that I know of that warrants a big scale protest”
– You nailed it. Your use of B. Madoff’s case as an example (labeled as) “white devil” (which for you is non racist) has no value at all since your knowledge about that case is as good as your neighbor. And a big scale protest? please thats too much. I will not start a big scale protest just because i read someone’s comment (as racist) in a blog site (not a newspaper). Your examples or counter arguments should be at least in proportion to what we are discussing.
“”A Korean friend of mine told me that the guy was white. As there was lack of news (in English) on this incident, I took his word for it. I’m sure you’re not going to challenge sources of second-hand information as you yourself put enough confidence in them.””
— I believe you, but being the ungentleman and sarcastic person that i am, i also believe that words are cheap. Of course i will (partly) believe in any 2nd hand info that i will get (like you do), BUT i will NOT jump on any conclusions as yet. My words in that paragraph above is this. “Of course now we have some info from the poster above that the assailant is an African-American of Moroccan origin. But for me, i will describe it as “American†nothing more.”– which means ill wait for more accurate sources like a newspaper article.
“”Animal can refer to people of all races; can you call Americans and Europeans monkeys?””-
–I cant and i will not. Because im not a racist 🙂
“Animal and white just don’t go well together to form a racist label unlike brown and monkey do. White animal debases only the individual concerned.”
— Again this is debatable. But of course i respect your explanations though i feel unsatisfied with almost all of them.
“”Response: Red herring. We’re talking about the alleged racist nature of the term WA.- “”
— Of course not. Im just pointing out that your preconceived notions and biases affected your words and remarks to which i branded as racist, which as ive said if done with a little reading and research would probably end up in a more careful way in the use of words
“”Peace to you too Arvin. It’s been nice sparring with you.””
— This is nothing personal Elliot, and im very sure you are smart enough to know that. We have different opinions yes, but that is normal. You are such an eloquent and gentleman person.
Other people to which i had “friendly” arguments with in the past even went out their way changing their nicks (using alternative nickname/username) and started a barrage of personal attacks against me instead of discussing the topic. Only morons and witless people do that. You are different. 🙂
Likewise, its been nice sparring with you too. Once your back in Korea, give me a ring, and we can have a nice chat over a cup of coffee or a bottle of soju, your choice 🙂
Peace
I was really shocked when my online friend in Korea told me about this incident so I searched it online..And yes, it is really true..Oh…it’s really sad news..lets pray for her.
I was stationed in Suwon when this happened. The attacker was an African who had enlisted in the U.S. Army after being promised a green card as a reward for his service. The Americans always suppress the news of these crimes in the USA itself, especially if the perpetrator is black. They don’t want to give “ammunition” to “white racists”. The American public never heard about this crime…nor have they been informed of thousands of others like it.