By Casey Lartigue Jr.
I am occasionally blindsided when race comes up during discussions about my activities related to North Korean refugees. A South Korean colleague says she has observed three main reactions: Koreans highlight that a Harvard graduate is helping refugees; North Korean refugees praise my work; American reporters and intellectuals bring up race.
After I spoke at a conference in the USA a few years ago, one of the professors who had been singing my praises informed me that some at the conference were asking: "Why is a black man doing so much to help North Koreans?" In a podcast discussion last year, a Korean-American host (now a good friend) asked how my race is related to my work.
I was recently interviewed on the TBS eFM radio show "Koreascape." Host Kurt Achin is a seasoned reporter who will directly ask you in a serious voice about stupid gossip he has heard, then wait to hear your response. Transitioning without a transition from the specifics of helping North Korean refugees, Achin asked: "Casey, you're African-American. Is that relevant? Do you bring any of that forward?"
I have been through this kind of discussion and didn't want to waste live radio time on it. To make his case, he mentioned that I occasionally quote Civil Rights leaders in my columns. I explained: "When I was 12 years old, I read all three of Frederick Douglass' books. I am still moved by his words and his actions."
I'm focused on freedom of choice, respecting the individual, and locomotion, not race. When I was the keynote speaker at the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association (FDMHA) conference in 2003 and later a member of the FDMHA Board of Trustees for more than a decade, I was honored because of Douglass' ideas and actions, not his race.
I have heard chatter that some conspiracy theorists and bean-counters in the journalistic and expat chattering class in Korea have been accusing me of trying to lead a movement against North Korea like I am a modern-day Frederick Douglass or Martin Luther King Jr. I've considered launching NorthKoreanRefugeeRevolution.com on a Friday night to set off simultaneous heart attacks as the chit-chatters are having drinks at the Press Club.
Those frogs in the well at Press Club networking nights see race, but Douglass stood for universal human rights, abolishing slavery, protecting women's suffrage, and open immigration. As Americans sought to restrict Chinese immigration to the USA, Douglass argued as early as 1869 for universal locomotion as part of human rights that all have (the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act passed anyway).
After that TBS eFM interview, I dug up the beautiful plaque FDMHA honored me with years ago. I have positioned it on the wall in my office in Seoul to fall, with the push of a button, on the heads of chit-chatting expats and reporters visiting me.
I'm not saying race is a forbidden subject, it is what it is. I can't help but notice that no matter what work I do, even helping North Korean refugees, some American reporters, intellectuals, and critics see race. I have had Koreans mention race, but that has been related to English teaching. Otherwise, about North Korean refugees, Koreans emphasize my Harvard connection then run through the usual boring checklist of questions about my favorite Korean food and personal life.
With so many seeing race, I am wondering: Am I the only blind one? I have no expertise about race other than being born to parents who are listed as "Negroid" on my birth certificate issued by the state of Texas. Two years ago, I rejected an offer by an American film director who wanted to feature me in a documentary. He wanted to highlight me as a black man who came to Korea to work in solidarity with North Korean refugees. That's not how it happened and I'm not sure how race would be the focus.
I suppose there is some irony that North Koreans, called the "Cleanest Race" by one American scholar on North Korea, have not connected race to my activities. I am humbled by the love showered on me by North Korean refugees. They bring me and my South Korean co-director personalized gifts and praise us as "angels" even when we aren't present. They talk about what we are doing, how we can expand to help more refugees, not about race.
I was recently connected with a Korean book publisher who wants to inform the Korean public about me. She has mentioned several possible angles, but race is not one of them. Our mutual contact may not have broken that particular bit of news to the publisher yet. I certainly won't be asking any of the gossiping reporters to propose book titles; I suspect they would start with the title of this column.
Casey Lartigue Jr. is the co-founder of the Teach North Korean Refugees Global Education Center (TNKR) in Seoul. He can be reached at CJL@post.harvard.edu.
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After I spoke at a conference in the USA a few years ago, one of the professors who had been singing my praises informed me that some at the conference were asking: "Why is a black man doing so much to help North Koreans?" In a podcast discussion last year, a Korean-American host (now a good friend) asked how my race is related to my work.
I was recently interviewed on the TBS eFM radio show "Koreascape." Host Kurt Achin is a seasoned reporter who will directly ask you in a serious voice about stupid gossip he has heard, then wait to hear your response. Transitioning without a transition from the specifics of helping North Korean refugees, Achin asked: "Casey, you're African-American. Is that relevant? Do you bring any of that forward?"
I have been through this kind of discussion and didn't want to waste live radio time on it. To make his case, he mentioned that I occasionally quote Civil Rights leaders in my columns. I explained: "When I was 12 years old, I read all three of Frederick Douglass' books. I am still moved by his words and his actions."
I'm focused on freedom of choice, respecting the individual, and locomotion, not race. When I was the keynote speaker at the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association (FDMHA) conference in 2003 and later a member of the FDMHA Board of Trustees for more than a decade, I was honored because of Douglass' ideas and actions, not his race.
I have heard chatter that some conspiracy theorists and bean-counters in the journalistic and expat chattering class in Korea have been accusing me of trying to lead a movement against North Korea like I am a modern-day Frederick Douglass or Martin Luther King Jr. I've considered launching NorthKoreanRefugeeRevolution.com on a Friday night to set off simultaneous heart attacks as the chit-chatters are having drinks at the Press Club.
Those frogs in the well at Press Club networking nights see race, but Douglass stood for universal human rights, abolishing slavery, protecting women's suffrage, and open immigration. As Americans sought to restrict Chinese immigration to the USA, Douglass argued as early as 1869 for universal locomotion as part of human rights that all have (the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act passed anyway).
After that TBS eFM interview, I dug up the beautiful plaque FDMHA honored me with years ago. I have positioned it on the wall in my office in Seoul to fall, with the push of a button, on the heads of chit-chatting expats and reporters visiting me.
I'm not saying race is a forbidden subject, it is what it is. I can't help but notice that no matter what work I do, even helping North Korean refugees, some American reporters, intellectuals, and critics see race. I have had Koreans mention race, but that has been related to English teaching. Otherwise, about North Korean refugees, Koreans emphasize my Harvard connection then run through the usual boring checklist of questions about my favorite Korean food and personal life.
With so many seeing race, I am wondering: Am I the only blind one? I have no expertise about race other than being born to parents who are listed as "Negroid" on my birth certificate issued by the state of Texas. Two years ago, I rejected an offer by an American film director who wanted to feature me in a documentary. He wanted to highlight me as a black man who came to Korea to work in solidarity with North Korean refugees. That's not how it happened and I'm not sure how race would be the focus.
I suppose there is some irony that North Koreans, called the "Cleanest Race" by one American scholar on North Korea, have not connected race to my activities. I am humbled by the love showered on me by North Korean refugees. They bring me and my South Korean co-director personalized gifts and praise us as "angels" even when we aren't present. They talk about what we are doing, how we can expand to help more refugees, not about race.
I was recently connected with a Korean book publisher who wants to inform the Korean public about me. She has mentioned several possible angles, but race is not one of them. Our mutual contact may not have broken that particular bit of news to the publisher yet. I certainly won't be asking any of the gossiping reporters to propose book titles; I suspect they would start with the title of this column.
Casey Lartigue Jr. is the co-founder of the Teach North Korean Refugees Global Education Center (TNKR) in Seoul. He can be reached at CJL@post.harvard.edu.
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