(Yonhap Feature) Obama's election victory brings hope to African-Korean youth

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Nov. 10 (Yonhap) -- As African-Americans cheered Barack Obama's win in the
U.S. presidential election, the joy was shared an ocean away in a Seoul middle
school classroom. Here, 14-year-old Park Soo-han Jowhar received praise and pats
on the shoulder from his classmates for being half-African like the first black
U.S. leader.
"Friends come and tell me Obama's in. They call me Obama. I was so proud," Park
said with a smile, his eyes twinkling brightly over dark-rimmed glasses.
The son of Sudanese father and Korean mother, Park grew up feeling adrift between
different cultures. But unlike many among older biracial generations in Korea,
the ninth grader now believes his African heritage is a strength. Hearing success
stories like Obama's and that of U.S. Pro Bowl wide receiver Hines Ward has
brought him hope as he envisions his future in this largely ethnically
homogeneous country.
Ward, born to an African-American serviceman and a Korean mother in Seoul,
received a hero's welcome when he made his first-ever comeback trip to Korea in
2006 as the MVP of Super Bowl XL, the U.S.'s largest sporting event. Concerns of
Korean racial discrimination had dominated the local media prior to his arrival.
"Many biracial children say the way people see them changed after Hines Ward's
visit," said Jung Yun-jung, a social welfare worker at Pearl S. Buck Foundation
Korea, a non-governmental organization for children of mixed ethnicity.
"Their friends show a changed attitude when we visit their classrooms and teach
them about multi-cultural society," Jung said. "Children of mixed ethnicity lift
their heads up in pride, while their friends learn how international marriage
happens and why some classmates next to them have a different skin color."
A typical teen boy who loves roller-blading, piano and computer games, Park said
he often got into fights at school because of his skin color. He has even cut
class to avoid the harassment of other students.
At home, he struggles with the restrictions dictated by his Muslim heritage. He
is not allowed to eat pork, and during vacation must accompany his father, a
former professor who now works as an Arabic translator, to pray at a mosque in
Seoul's international Itaewon district every Friday.
"I just wanted to be Korean, nothing else. The desire was so deep," Park said.
"Then, my father always tells me, 'You have to work harder than the rest. If you
behave well, people will think you do so because your dad is Sudanese. If you
behave badly, they will think you do so because your dad is Sudanese.' I felt
responsible," Park said.
So Lisa, 19, also had to learn early on how to defend herself from racial
prejudice. The child of a Korean mother and an African-American U.S. serviceman
who left the country before she was born, So said she dropped out of her
elementary school shortly after her first semester because the harassment was so
harsh.
"Go back to Africa," she recalls her classmates saying. Raised in Busan by her
mother, So said Obama's victory felt especially personal.
"I believed from the beginning that he would win," she said excitedly on a recent
morning before taking a flight to Pittsburgh from Incheon International Airport.
So was one of eight biracial children invited to visit the U.S. by football star
Ward, who has become an advocate for ethnic minorities in South Korea.
"Being a biracial man, he must have undergone a lot of hardships, and I believe
that was character-building," So said of Obama.
She entered high school in Busan through self-directed learning and now hopes to
eventually move to the U.S. and become a doctor.
"When I see movies, black people have their pride. They have hip hop, and they
have history. But here, I am the only one. Maybe in the U.S., it'd be easier to
connect to my peers," she said.
Racial prejudices will likely continue to be entrenched here for years to come.
But Obama's victory has, if nothing else, given people like So and Park new
confidence to overcome them.
Park said that now when people make fun of his skin color, he brushes it off as
jealousy.
"I want to be someone like Obama," he said. "He made people go 'wow.' I want to
show that black people are not weak. Some blacks in the U.S. are successful, but
not in Korea. I want to be a black man who is successful in Korea."
hkim@yna.co.kr
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