Here's my full length response to the post since I only left a truncated version there:
[Can we delete all the 'angry white man' comments already?]
Back to the topic at hand...
Dear reader,
Have you been black all your life?
If you answered "Yes", to the above question, you are indeed prepared to face 'racism' in Korea!
What you will experience in Korea is not much different--and in my personal opinion--less annoying, than what you would experience in the United States. Unfortunately, guys like Scott are living and working in Korea, and they've brought all their baggage with them.
Still, unless you're from a multicultural mixing pot like SoCal, NYC or The Bay, you're probably used to guys like him. (Otherwise, you may want to read Expat Jane's post on Ugly Americans to get up to speed.) For the most part, racism isn't what you should be worried about, it's the culture clash you'll have with your employers that might wear you down...
If in fact you do speak a little Korean, people will probably look at you like you have two heads before they break into applause or something equally silly. I once exchanged names with a Korean guy at a club and spoke a few basic phrases (nice to meet you, etc.) and he flat out kissed me. Granted I think he had taken in a fair share of liquid courage before that...but you get the point. Korean Koreans are AMAZED that any non-Korean can speak the language at all. (Perhaps this is because of 'racialized thinking'.) So your efforts will not go unnoticed.
So basically being black, people will have it in the back of their heads that you can sing, dance, play basketball and maybe even rap. (Is that new?) I've been earnestly asked about all of the aforementioned except for rapping...and that was in New England! I'm far less annoyed with ignorant Koreans than ignorant white folks in the US because being in the US, there's no excuse. I don't like playing 'black ambassador' when I'm in my home country. Here, that's to be expected.
As for work options, I'm only aware of one black person in Korea who scored a pretty prominent position at a Korean company,
lol Yeochin to working on Saturdays. My school made up for it by asking me to do afterschool classes 4 days a week. Now that my fragile, American body is run down from 10 weeks of 11-hour days, everyone's freaking out over my "health." he he. Even though it sounded crazy to begin with, I was real cool about it when I first got here. One nasty flu and stomach ulcer symptoms later, I think they'll take my request for fewer hours more seriously next semester.
I won't sugarcoat the fact that more than one friend who works with young kids has had to endure "gorilla," "brown=poop," or "black=ugly" comments. (In none of the incidents was it directed towards the teacher.) At the same time, the little brats have been apologetic when confronted. I remind myself that this is coming from a country of kids who regularly call each other "monkey" and variations of poop are used as 'cute' pet names. Before the US elections, a friend asked one of her elementary students, "Why would you like John McCain to win the election?" to which he answered to her face, "Because I hate black people," and walked off. Well, hot damn! Was that kid raised by David Duke? Those moments do suck. Still, there's nothing about that mindset particularly unique to Korea. I'd more expect to hear something like that in the States.
As for me, when you're out here doing the expat thing, people always ask, "How long are you gonna stay?" At this point, my answer is as long as it's fun. As long as I find the idosyncracies of Korea amusing, it's worth me being this far away from home. When that seriously changes, I'm out. I wouldn't recommend raising brown babies here but neither would I recommend New England or the Deep South. So everything is absolutely relative. This is the piece of the globe I should be inhabiting at this time.
