Race and Ethnicity

Submitted by Ryan Laverty

Race and Ethnicity

           I was born in Pyungtaek, South Korea to a mother that never seen America before moving here.  My father is of Irish descent and is the fourth generation to live in America after my great-great-grandfather arrived at Ellis Island to escape the famine in Ireland.  As proud of my heritage it was difficult for me to deal with racism.

Less than 1 year old in Seoul, South Korea

            From an early age my mother wanted me to be “Americanized” and tried to hide any signs that would make me “too Korean”.  This resulted in my mother never teaching me to speak Korean.  Throughout my early years being a mixed race was very common among my friends and neighbors due to living on military bases. Many children had parents of different races.  When I reached third grade I moved to the Frankford section of Philadelphia outside a military base and it was where I first experienced racism. None of the other children wanted to be my friend and many peers would make fun of my mother when she picked me up from school.  There was open discrimination and prejudice from the noon time aids at recess and even the crossing guard.  While walking down the street my father was spit on by someone just because he married a “chink”.

            After these events my family decided to move to the Olney section of the city. At first, everything was great, the neighborhood had people of many races and everyone got along very well.  It was in this neighborhood that I gained friends of Asian descent.  I began to notice that I was never allowed in their homes or when their mothers saw me playing with them I would over hear another language.  One day after school my friend took me to a local Korean Community Center to hang out but I was asked to leave because I was not a full Korean.  This was when I learned that my friend’s parents did not like that I was not a full Korean and they looked down upon my family.

            This discrimination and prejudice shaped how I viewed my family.  This brought me closer to my little sister and other family members because we all had felt our race being used to hurt us.  I could never understand why my family on my father’s side treated me as a loving family member but other people in the neighborhood just saw me as a “half-breed”.

I grew up experience incidents like this in many neighborhoods and in school. Even now some people do not realize I’m half Korean because it should not matter what race I am.   I used to get angry about racism and even tried fighting every bully who used racism towards me but now I just laugh at how ignorant and stupid they sound. 

A few months ago at a bar I was drinking at started talking to me and thought I was white and told me “White Power!” before he went on a racist tirade.  Instead of getting angry I turned his arguments against him and made him feel stupid for talking like that. After speaking up other bar patrons also began saying they were tired of his racist ways.  The guy has not returned to the local bar since.

I feel if I didn’t say anything that guy would still be getting drunk and hurting people with his racist remarks.  It is better to speak out against racism than to ignore that it still exists.  I think if more people stood up for what is right, things will change and maybe all laws and policies that are still discriminating to a person’s skin color will change.