Racism, Korea, China, America

Obviously it's easy to look skeptically on the Korean media's tendency to flatly assert the positives of multiculturalism and wonder how many average Koreans are really ready to sign on, or if the people producing the stories really know what they're promoting. My view is that while multiculturalism in Korea is in danger of just being a trendy buzzword and thoughtless cure-all, when Koreans collectively decide to throw themselves into a project it's difficult to gainsay them. The bumps along the way for them will still be jarring, but could be smoother than in other nations. Intiatives like this are becoming more common.

Regardless, Reihan Salam's excellent piece on race in the US, China, and Korea makes for interesting reading:

These anxieties have the air of self-fulfilling prophecy. Given that many if not most Koreans prize ethnic homogeneity, migrant workers will remain on the margins of society. This, in turn, will fuel alienation and resentment among this class of permanent second-class citizens. And so South Korea's major cities could very well see the rise of segregated ethnic slums. It's worth noting that anti-foreigner sentiments are flourishing in a time when South Korea is experiencing rapid economic change, including a new social and economic inequality. Just as racism provided the basis for solidarity among whites in U.S. history, it could be playing a similar role in South Korea.

Next to China's race problem, South Korea's pales in significance.