New Hero? Really?

New hero opens old racial wounds in South Korea
Monday April 3, 4:54 AM


South Koreans are readying to crown a new hero, American footballer Hines Ward, whose arrival Monday looks set stir national pride as well as open some old racial wounds.
Born of a Korean mother and an African-American father, Ward, 31, became an overnight sensation in South Korea when the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver won the MVP award in the team's Super Bowl win against the Seattle Seahawks last month.
Embarking on a 10-day sentimental tour of the land of his birth, Ward is joined by his mother Kim Young-Hee, who took him to the United States when he was a baby to escape the pervasive discrimination suffered by mixed race kids here.
Koreans pride themselves on being a homogenous race who until recent years turned their backs on the outside world. But now up to 700,000 foreigners live in the country and one in four Koreans in the countryside marry foreigners.
The result is a growing number of mixed-race kids.
One of them, Park Il-Jun, like Ward the son of a black US soldier and a Korean mother, was upset at the hoopla surrounding the visit of the famous Gridiron player.
"At first, I was pissed off at the fuss over Hines Ward," he said.
"Koreans make a big fuss over him, but ignore the plight of biracial Koreans who have to live here.
"The situation is especially bad for those born to an African American father."
Park, 51, became a successful pop singer in the 1970s but was refused airtime by TV stations who thought he looked too dark.
He says it was his passion for music that gave him strength to overcome discrimination and achieve fame with his first hit in 1977.
Many Koreans wonder what would have become of their new hero Ward had he stayed in South Korea, and been subject to the daily round of bullying and ostracism faced by biracial kids.
"Many of them fail to complete school where they are ostracized by their classmates because of their appearance," said Lee Ji-Young at Pearl S. Buck International Korea, a US-based private group that helps mixed-race children.
Ward's own mother has described how she was spat upon and insulted in the street by Koreans before she quit the country.
No mixed race Koreans have reached positions of prominence in business, politics or any sphere outside entertainment and sports, said Lee. They were even banned from the military until June last year. Since the ban was lifted, none have applied to join.
"They know they would be treated like apes in a zoo there," said Song Young-Sun, an opposition lawmaker.
Social workers say no reliable statistics exist on the number of mixed race children in South Korea, although some 5,000, mostly born to American soldiers and Korean women, are registered with Pearl S. Buck International Korea.
"We have no idea of the totals becau*****ey are often raised by a single mother and registered under the mother's Korean name after the father, often American soldiers, leaves here," said the foundation's Lee.
Park says growing up in Korea was torment. He brawled almost every day with neighbourhood kids who called him "yontan", or coal briquette, the black plug of coal used in the past to heat homes.
"Mother always had my hair mowed down to the bear skin to hide my frizzy hair," he said. "Adults in the neighborhood were scared of her as she fought back viciously whenever they talked trash about us.
"I drank a lot of milk, secretly believing this would somehow make the color of my skin lighter."
Then he found unlikely success through music.
"I liked to play the guitar. Strangely, I felt myself at home when I heard African American music," he said. "But I was unable to appear on TV for months. My agent said the TV station turned me down because my face was too dark."
Now happily married with two children, Park tells his kids not to hide their mixed race.
"I say stand up and don't cringe, because you did nothing wrong," he said. "Discriminations against mixed-race people must stop with my generation."
If Hines Ward can help achieve that goal, then he is a welcome visitor to Korea, said Park.
"I hope this craze over Ward leads Koreans to take a harder look at the situation faced by Koreans with mixed blood," he said.