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Foreign professor launches battle to raise local awareness of racism
By Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, Sept. 7, (Yonhap) -- Being racially ridiculed for his skin color was one thing, but not even having the legal means to lodge a complaint was a bigger shock for Bonojit Hussain, a professor from India who has been living in Seoul for over two years.
In a case that is certain to leave a mark in South Korea's judicial history, a local court last week accepted a petition filed by Hussain and indicted a Korean man he accused of racial discrimination. | | Bonojit Hussain |
The defendant, identified only by his last name Park, had called Hussain "smelly" and "dirty" and a string of other epithets while the two were on a local bus in July.
"My goal was not to punish an individual, but to bring the issue to the public forum," the 28-year-old professor said in a phone interview Monday with Yonhap. "To me, it is obvious that racial discrimination is an everyday phenomenon in Korea, but nobody seems to talk about it in public."
After the incident, Hussain decided to take action against the man by filing a racial discrimination suit. He soon found, however, that no explicit law against racial discrimination exists in South Korea and thus the charge could not be applied.
"When I found out there is no such category on racial discriminatory practices, I thought that racism is more serious and deeper rooted in the society," Hussain said. "Without proper law, foreigners don't have many options but to put up with such situations."
As a result, he filed "personal insult" charges against Park in accordance with local criminal code.
Hussain came to South Korea in early 2007 as a graduate student. Although he majored in history, he soon began to take interest in the country's labor issues. After about a year, he was given an "research professor" title at SungKongHoe University and was tasked with coordinating research on social issues. He chose racism in Asian society as the topic of his paper, which he hopes to complete in the near future.
Soon after the incident on the bus, he filed a petition with South Korea's National Human Rights Commission, claiming that police officers handling his case displayed a discriminatory attitude during his questioning. The investigators, according to Hussain, wasted more than an hour verifying his identity despite his repeated claims that he was a research professor. They would not believe him and were very discourteous, Hussain said.
The petition also argues that his personal rights were infringed because South Korea does not have a law that punishes racial discrimination.
The commission said it is looking into the petition.
Hussain's actions have not gone unnoticed. Rep. Jun Byun-hun of the main opposition Democratic Party said Sunday he will submit a bill banning discriminatory practices against foreigners based on either color or nationality. The bill proposes punishing those who are found violating the law with up to two years in prison or a maximum fine of 10 million won (US$8,000), the lawmaker said.
The court ruling comes after a recent census showing the number of foreign residents in the country surpassed 1 million as of May. A report by a research institute earlier this month said that by 2050, the number of foreigners residing in South Korea will reach 4.1 million, accounting for around 10 percent of the country's population.
Hussain said the bus incident was not the first time that he experienced racial bias in Korea, mostly because of his darker skin and east Asian nationality.
"It was interesting to see that some people instantly judge me as a poor migrant worker due to my skin color," Hussain said. After "often (facing) those discriminatory situations, I don't feel confident anymore."
Hussain said that based on the court ruling, he hopes to see Korean society make further efforts to end its deeply rooted racial practices.
"With the help of Koreans who support my action, I decided to come out of the closet to at least talk about the issue in public, and hopefully, to make changes," Hussain said. "Although the court's official decision is yet to be made, some people already have started to talk about some elements of racial discrimination. That's a good sign to deal with the problem."
ejkim@yna.co.kr
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