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Viewing cable 06SEOUL2577, THE HINES WARD EFFECT: KOREA QUESTIONS ITS

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06SEOUL2577 2006-07-31 09:15 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Seoul
VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHUL #2577/01 2120915
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 310915Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY SEOUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9420
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 1021
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 1101
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUALSFJ/COMUSJAPAN YOKOTA AB JA
RHMFIUU/COMUSKOREA J2 SEOUL KOR
RHMFIUU/COMUSKOREA J5 SEOUL KOR
RHMFIUU/COMUSKOREA SCJS SEOUL KOR
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC//OSD/ISA/EAP//
UNCLAS SEOUL 002577 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KS
SUBJECT: THE HINES WARD EFFECT: KOREA QUESTIONS ITS 
NATIONAL IDENTITY 
 
1. (U) SUMMARY: When Hines Ward, a half-Korean, 
half-African-American pro football player, visited Korea 
recently, the event caused Koreans to examine their own 
prejudices against Koreans of mixed-race heritage.  Hines 
Ward became a media darling, while the average mixed-race 
Korean suffers bigotry, poor education rates, high 
unemployment, and are not even allowed to join the military, 
despite compulsory military service for all other males.  The 
"Hines Ward effect" also impacted the ROKG, which introduced 
anti-discrimination legislation during his visit and promised 
to revise textbooks by 2009.  As the number of mixed-race 
Koreans and other foreigners continues to rise in Korea, the 
ROKG and others will need to actively contend with this 
issue.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2. (U) Although some of Korea's hottest celebrities are 
mixed-race, Hines Ward is the first half-Korean, half-African 
American star to be embraced by the Korean public (the other 
celebrities are half-Caucasian).  When the Pittsburg Steelers 
quarterback/most valuable player (MVP) of the 2006 Super Bowl 
visited Korea in April 2006, corporations practically tripped 
over themselves to offer him free products and endorsement 
deals.  The star treatment Ward received was in stark 
contrast, however, to the way average mixed-raced people are 
treated in Korea.  As such, Ward's visit, especially the 
caustic criticism from his accompanying Korean mother, caused 
many Koreans to confront how they treat mixed-race people, 
who were until recently mostly the children of American 
soldier fathers and Korean mothers. 
 
A BRIEF ETHNIC HISTORY 
---------------------- 
 
3. (U) Historically, Korea preferred to keep to itself, 
hence the term Hermit Kingdom.  But it was not always able to 
fend off neighbors with colonial designs, such as Japan. 
Thus, "pure blood" Korean ethnicity became a source of 
national pride.  In textbooks, Korean children are taught the 
myth of Dan-gun, the leader of the "son of heaven" tribe, 
which alludes to Korean people's celestial origins. 
 
4. (U) Korea has remained virtually homogenous ethnically. 
 The only sizable non-Korean ethnic group is the Chinese 
people, who first immigrated from Shandong in the late 19th 
century.  There are about 20,000 Chinese-Koreans, and they 
typically remain distinct: they tend not to intermarry with 
Koreans and retain their native language.  In fact, many 
remain citizens of China or Taiwan, since Korean law endows 
citizenship per the father's nationality. 
 
5. (U) Mixed-race children born during the Korean War from 
unions between American soldiers and Korean women were the 
first obviously mixed-race Koreans.  These children were 
discriminated against not only because they weren't 
"pure-blooded" Koreans, but also because there was a 
perception that the Korean mothers were prostitutes (or at 
least very strange to choose such a union).  Those who were 
half African-American received the harshest treatment, as 
Koreans tended to discriminate against those whose skin was 
darker than theirs. 
 
TREATMENT OF MIXED-RACED KOREANS 
-------------------------------- 
 
6. (U) For biracial children, life in Korea is bleak. 
Forty percent of mixed-raced Koreans have attempted suicide, 
says the state-run National Human Rights Commission. 
According to the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, a nonprofit 
organization that supports mixed-race children in Korea, a 
sizable number of mixed-race children do not even make it 
past elementary school because of discrimination.  Between 
1964 and 2002, 17.5 percent of mixed-race children failed to 
complete middle school, versus 1.1 percent of full-blooded 
Korean children.  Twenty-two percent of mixed-race people are 
unemployed, compared to the national rate in June 2006 of 3.4 
percent. 
 
7. (U) But when Hines Ward came to Korea, Koreans seemed 
to ignore his African-American heritage and embraced him as a 
Korean hero.  Before then, he received no media attention.  A 
JoongAng Daily article from September 2005 claims that no 
article had been written on Ward up to that point.  The 
attention that was showered upon Ward during his April 2006 
visit provoked an array of emotions among Koreans: sorrow, 
anger, shame, soul-searching, and confusion among mixed-race 
Koreans, who had never seen a half African-American person so 
adored.  Hines Ward's mother, Kim Young-hee, did not hold 
back criticizing the way she and Hines were treated when they 
were in Korea, describing how they were spat upon during a 
1998 visit.  She said they would never have had the 
opportunity to succeed if they remained in Korea.  (NOTE: 
They moved to the United States when Ward was one year old. 
END NOTE.) 
 
NEW LEGISLATION 
--------------- 
 
8. (U) Hines Ward's story even inspired politicians to 
enact anti-discrimination laws.  Representative Kim 
Choong-hwan (GNP), told poloff he was "deeply impressed" by 
the difficulties that Ward's mother experienced.  Kim 
introduced an anti-discrimination bill to the National 
Assembly in April 2006 that, among other things, proposes to 
establish the Center for Helping Mixed Blood Families (under 
the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family); requires schools 
to carry out education plans for mixed-race children; and 
empowers governments and local governing bodies to provide 
financial aid as necessary.  Kim will bring a revised version 
of the bill to the National Assembly in September 2006, and 
he expects wide support from representatives and Koreans in 
general. 
 
9. (U) The ROKG is also making some rhetorical changes. 
The Blue House and the Ministry of Education and Human 
Resources Development said they will revise textbooks by 2009 
to include multiracial and multicultural aspects of Korea. 
(NOTE: Currently, textbooks refer to Korea as an ethnically 
homogenous society. END NOTE.)  The ROKG will also use the 
term "people of international marriages" instead of "mixed 
blood" in all government documents. 
 
10. (U) Recently, the ROKG has made other changes that give 
more rights to non-"pure blood" Koreans.  In 2005, the ROKG 
revised voting laws so that foreign residents who have lived 
in Korea for at least three years could vote in local 
elections, but not presidential or parliamentary elections. 
Plus, until earlier this year, mixed-race males were not 
allowed to serve in the military, which meant they could not 
participate in what is commonly viewed as a rite of passage. 
Mixed-race men are now allowed to volunteer, but only a few 
have come forward. 
 
11. (U) There are critics to the ROKG's changes, ranging from 
North Korea, who ridiculed the ROKG's reference to Korea as a 
multiracial society, to academics, to average citizens. 
There is a general belief that politicians were taking 
advantage of the issue du jour, and that once the dust 
settled, any changes that were made won't have a true or 
lasting impact.  A Korea Herald journalist wryly noted that, 
when doing research on multiracialism in Korea, there was 
media buzz around the Ward visit that lasted exactly one 
month, but now there is nothing. 
 
THE AMERICANIZATION OF KOREA? 
----------------------------- 
 
12. (U) By 2020, the Pearl S. Buck foundation estimates 
there will be 70,000 mixed-race Koreans.  In addition, there 
are currently 800,000 foreigners in Korea, many of whom are 
workers.  As more and more provincial Koreans move to the 
cities, farmers and fisherman are "importing" wives from 
other countries, particularly South-east Asia.  The products 
of those unions make up the majority mixed-race people in 
Korea.  (NOTE: There are 30,000 Korean and South-east Asian 
mixed-race people, compared to 5,000 born to Korean mothers 
and American fathers. END NOTE.)  Many Koreans seem to accept 
that globalization is inevitable for Korea.  Although the 
ROKG is making changes, the problems associated with 
prejudice against mixed-race people or other foreigners will 
continue to be an issue that it will be faced with for a long 
time to come. 
YUN