During the Tuesday's Lecture on inequality, It had occurred to me that inequality is not only the problem of the United States, but also the severe problem of South Korea, the country that I was born and raised.

Inequality is not so much of a popular issue in South Korea; they are often ignored, and I believe it is mainly because of people's belief and pride of Korea being a nation-state with one unified ethnicity. Koreans believe that every Korean people come from a same root, and they consider it as a national pride.

It is absurd, and simply illogical, but they are popular, just like Creationism is popular in the United States (what is worse, Creationism is also popular in South Korea).

First of all, it is impossible for Korean to be racially and ethnically different than Chinese or Japanese because they all had been traveling back and fourth before modern boundaries were set. Secondly, in terms of culture, Koreans were as influenced by China as Japan and other East Asian countries did. Korean textbooks say that Koreans are different and unique because Koreans have own languages and characters, and we are one unified ethnicity unlike China and Japan, but in that sense, what country aren't? I mean, every country has right to consider itself special, and there are always ways to which one can justify him/herself as unique and special. Still, emphasizing it more than necessary has dangers of misleading public.

Japanese had colonized Korea back in the early 20th century, and it was such a cruel and harsh time for Koreans because of Japanese Imperial Army's belief and agenda that says they are superior than any other. Their belief were somewhat like Nazi's, and their belief justified evil practices that were done during fifty years of Japanese colonial period in Korea. The troops had kidnapped many Korean young women as comfort women, and many Korean men were forced to fight for Japanese imperial army, or they were to be taken to military labs to be tested as a subjects of biochemical weapons. Japanese Imperial Army had committed inhumane war crime to people in China and Philippines as well; many Chinese and Korean are still hostile to Japan as European descendants of Nazi victims consider Nazi state of Germany in the past.

Anyhow, the reason why I bring up war crimes of Japanese Imperial Army is because I want to emphasize dangers of Korean people's pride in being the nation-state with one ethnicity.

The reason behind the pride roots back in the history. Korean peninsular is placed between China and Japan, and it was continuously invaded by neighboring Japan and China. As a result, Koreans have become hostile to anything that is foreign, and started to emphasize Korean ethnicity to strengthen their unity.

This reason behind this Korean pride may seem fair, but the problem is that too many politicians have abused this belief, transforming it into different shape as it originally was. Koreans considered their uniform ethnicity solely as an evidence of being unconquerable state, but in today's society it somehow had evolved to racial supremacy, very much the same belief that Japanese Imperial Army had back in the 20th century.

It cannot be more ironic considering the sufferings that Korean people had because of Japanese Imperial Army, but such phenomena is not so much of a surprise as it is also found in today's Russia as well. (Problem of Neo-Nazi skinheads in Russia).

Luckily, unlike in Russia, there has been no bloodshed, nor uprising in Korea.

However, inequality and discrimination exists.

There are roughly more than 400,000 immigrant workers in Korea, from China, Bangladesh, Mongolia, and many other. According to annual research, immigrant workers are paid 30% less, and record of abuses by Korean employers are increasing. Immigrant workers are often unpaid, physically abused, and threatened by their employers for their illegal status.

Even in today's society, offsprings of interracial marriage are mistreated for color of their skin. Celebrities announcing their interracial heritage is considered as a 'coming out' and it is reported in Newspapers.

Interracial marriage is higher than 10% in today's Korea. The rate has sky-rocketted within recent years due to interracial marriage trend in farming families in South Korea. The tendency of Korean women avoiding farming families had caused men to go overseas to look for their brides. Those brides come from Uzbekistan, Russia, Vietnam, Philippines, etc.

I believe in near future, South Korea will have to face extreme shock caused by its ignorance towards discrimination and inequality in today.