Building more livable place for everyone

Prof. Cha Yun-kyung

response to the article titled “Multiracial kids have better odds of excelling at sports.” ― E.D.

Recently, an article in the Korea Times titled “Multiracial kids have better odds of excelling at sports” by Lee Tae-hoon ignited a heated controversial debate on racism.

Quoting some experts, the article says many children from so called “multicultural families” appear to have “the ideal physical and mental traits as an athlete.” In addition, since “sports allow children with a different cultural background to compete fairly with others without having to worry about racial discrimination and language barriers,” the article notes “multiracial children have a greater chance of falling in love with sport.”

Why is this kind of statement problematic and open to criticism as having racist connotations? Of course, it is quite alright to say that some people are born with special talents and thus deemed to be better suitable for a certain field of sports or arts for example.

All individuals are unique; people have different talents, and such a diversity of talents enriches society as a whole. However, it is problematic when one stereotypically attributes someone’s special physical and/or mental traits to her/his racial group characteristics instead of individual differences.

The situation becomes more inflammatory when those group characteristics are invoked in conjunction with such a derogatory and questionable categorization of some racial/ethnic groups as “mixed-blood hybrids” as opposed to “pure blood” Koreans as in the aforementioned article.

I am not trying to reproach the writer for not being sensitive enough in using politically correct language. Neither is it my intention to accuse the head of Asian Friends who allegedly made some racist remarks.

As far as I know him personally, he is the last man to be called a racist. He has in fact dedicated himself to the cause of promoting human rights throughout his entire life. For more than two decades, he has vehemently fought to protect many international guest workers in Korea whose rights were violated.

According to some social psychological research, human beings are liable to demonstrate discriminatory attitudes toward members of an out-group even when distinctions among groups are based on extremely limited points.

In this regard, terms such as “multicultural families” and “multiracial children” can be divisive because they continuously distinguish “them” from “us” and thus treat them as “others.”

This may have negative influences on our ways of daily interaction with a significant number of fellow Koreans.

As quoted in the aforementioned article, we often forget the fact that almost one half of all Korean surnames are of foreign origin. This means that a large proportion of so called the “mainstream” Korean racial/ethnic group is already “multicultural.”

The only difference, if any, seems to be that their ancestors settled on the Korean Peninsula relatively earlier compared to the new comers.

Instead of dividing people by ethnicity, race, gender, religion, class, sexual orientation, and disability, and so forth, I believe the Korea Times can play an important role in uniting all of us sharing a common dream ― a dream in which all the citizens and residents of multicultural Korea join hands in building a more livable place for everyone.

The author is a professor at Hanyang University and the head of the president of the Korean Association for Multicultural Education. <The Korea Times/Cha Yun-kyung>