When North Korea sent some 357 men over to the former East Germany in the 1950s to train them, the two countries also unexpectedly set in motion some of the most dramatic and bittersweet stories of forbidden love that I’ve ever encountered.
For example, consider the case of Renata Hong, who waited for 47 years before reuniting with her husband in North Korea:
Renate returned to Germany on Tuesday after a 12-day reunion with her long-lost husband in North Korea – a highly unusual episode given the Communist government’s policy of keeping most of its people without mail or telephone links to the rest of the world, not to mention the Internet.
Traveling with Renate were their two sons. Peter Hyon Zol was 10 months old, and Renate was pregnant with Uwe, when the family broke up in the vortex of the Cold War.
Renate Kleinle and Hong Ok Geun met in 1955, when they attended the same freshman chemistry class at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, East Germany. Hong was a humorous exchange student from North Korea, then East Germany’s Communist ally.
They fell in love. Because both governments frowned on marriages between North Korean students and East Germans, the couple married in 1960 in a rural town where the local authorities were unaware of the national government’s policy. There were no guests.
The couple’s happy time lasted only one year, however. In 1961, the Pyongyang government recalled all 350 of its students in East Germany, a measure believed prompted by a few North Korean students’ defections to the West. Hong was given 48 hours to pack.
Holding 10-month-old Peter, Renate bid a tearful farewell to Hong at the Jena train station.
I’m tearing up just imagining that scene for myself.
Well, German filmmaker Sung-Hyung Cho stumbled upon Renate’s love story and it inspired her to discover more of these couples, ultimately leading to a new documentary film released in June 2015 titled “Verliebt, Verlobt, Verloren” (“Loved, Engaged, Lost”). Here’s the trailer on Youtube for the documentary film, presented in German (folks in China, you’ll need a VPN to view it):
I’ve also discovered an excellent interview with Sung-Hyung Cho about the film. Here’s a snippet:
DW: What was the idea behind the film?
Sung-Hyung Cho: The story of Renate Hong was very popular in South Korea. In 2006, her story became the talk of the town after a South Korean historian – who had conducted some research in Jena about the relationship between North Korea and East Germany – met Renate Hong by chance.
She narrated her story, and he propagated it on the Internet. The response was overwhelming. The Koreans were blown away by the sad but beautiful love story.
Most Koreans, myself included, know the story. Moreover, I was greatly interested in knowing and better understanding former East Germany. I also wanted to know more about North Korea, even if only indirectly.
Have you ever heard about this fascinating chapter of AMWF history between Germany and North Korea? And, for those of you who have seen the film, what did you think of it?
P.S.: Thanks to Ruth of the wonderful blog China Elevator Stories for tipping me off to this!
I have never heard of these star-crossed lovers. Thanks for educating me.
I kind of want to watch the documentary, and I kind of don’t want to turn into a blubbering mess.
I had never heard of this fascinating piece of history either (North Korean students going to Germany) let alone the AMWF element of this! I have learnt something new today, thank you for sharing this Jocelyn 🙂
You’re welcome Cat!
You’re welcome! I feel the same way — definitely want to watch, and know I’ll probably need a ton of kleenex on standby. 😉
I learned something new today. And my heart is torn. Just after finishing reading this and watching the trailer, I became a bubbling mess. This is so tragic and so sad, that it’s a part of history I never knew.
Thanks for the share. In some point in the future I want to watch the documentary. Makes me miss learning German and kind of wish I continued my studies in learning Deutsch.
I know, it’s incredibly tragic! Hard to believe this happened.
Wow, this is a sad but fascinating personal account of their life. It’s really interesting to learn about the time and history when people live in dictatorial states.
Speaking of which, North Korea is one of the places that I would love to go. 🙂
It sure is fascinating.
N. Korea would be quite the adventure — read this article from a student who studied abroad there. Might give you a taste for what it’s like: http://www.dw.com/en/like-in-another-world-spending-a-semester-in-north-korea/a-18638932
Wow, 47 years and most of them without having any news from him… I don’t know if that is love or just madness!! But it is a very interesting story indeed. Thanks for sharing!
Yeah, I cannot imagine being separated for 47 years!
Hello , Thank you for sharing this story on your blog. I’m from Germany and I know about those stories. There is also more to it. There were also lots of Vietnamese coming to east germany. They were also forced to leave back to vietnam, to help fight against the us army. Or they also had to leave then there was no longer a need for them as *guest workers*. They left also a lot of half Vietnamese – german children behind. A lot more then the north Koreans. I know myself three of them. This must have been so hard for their mothers. It’s so cruel that you can’t be together because of these political absurdities. They also still looking for their father.
I’m sure if you dig deeper there is more to find. For example France deported a lot of southeast Asians from their colonies for the first and second world work to Europe . They all mostly died from gunfire since they were the one in the first lines. But some survived and stayed in Europe (how could they have gone back .. no money and so on ). So some married french women. There is also a french documentary about this.
Yeu, thank you so much for sharing. Gosh, I had no idea there was a similar phenomenon with Vietnamese men who came to East Germany and also ended up leaving behind families. I’m also very curious about what you mentioned regarding France and will have to look up the documentary.
I havent seen the movie (yet) however after reading Ruth’s article I started to remember more what I learn in high school in the history classes. There were many more such fates back in the day and nearly all ended up without a happy end 🙁
Yes, I am sure there are many sad stories in history of star-crossed lovers, forced apart by political absurdities.
What a heartbreaking and sad story 🙁 I bet if this were to be a Korean drama, then the female lead will either be of Korean origins who somehow ends up in Germany, or a half-Korean woman who somehow ends up in Germany.
If you’re looking for a true breakup story between a white female and a Korean male, do let me know, and I’ll happily write one for you.
@ Svetlana.
Well, I would love to hear about your breakup story between Korean male and WF. Please write about it. Thanks.
Thanks for the comment, Sveta. Yes, I remember some of your breakup stories. Hope you find your true love someday. 🙂
I saw an ad about the move two or three weeks ago and really wanted to watch it. I am currently looking for an opportunity to do so.
If you end up seeing it, let us know what you think!
“When North Korea sent some 357 men over to the former East Germany in the 1950s to train them, the two countries also unexpectedly set in motion some of the most dramatic and bittersweet stories of forbidden love that I’ve ever encountered.”
And they were supposed to be socialists where everyone is equal. Guess as they say in George Orwell’s Animal Farm…perhaps some socialists are more equal than others. Some of the most racist people I have met are ex-communists or even current communists. If Russia and Eastern Europe had not put up a charade of well developed countries for nearly fifty years, perhaps white supremacy and white privilege might have died a long time ago.
@ David.
How do you know that the ex-communists and current communists are racists? I thought that Russia and E. Europe did not have sanctioned racial segregation unlike in the U.S., did not have anti-miscegenation laws unlike in the U.S., no media portrayal of demeaning other races unlike in the U.S. (e.g. showing Chinese men as weak and conniving), no exclusion acts unlike in the U.S. (e.g. Chinese Exclusion Act), etc. If you are talking about the illness of the Communist system, then I agree such as lacking freedom expression, etc. But as far as racial equality, I thought that they did not discriminate.
@Fred..
Experience in Russia, Germany and many other countries of Eastern Europe where I used to go on economic project missions for international organizations. Other than Russia, try Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, and Moldova among others. The racism was not against me per se..but against interracial couples, as well as inter-ethnic..Latvian-Russian for instance, couples…and I hear from my colleagues that nothing much has changed.
@Fred.
You do not need to have laws in books. It is what is practiced. Back in the 1990s my black colleague said all white skinned people all over the world are suspect….guilty of racism until proven innocent. why? In 1992 when the first international organization missions went into Russia, these ex-communists and current communists (socialists marching around with pictures of Lenin and Stalin) made it clear that they will not talk to anyone of non-white origin. They woke up to see that Asia had pulled ahead of them and that they have been living a fraud. If the Soviets had not existed until the 1990s living a fraud and lie about economic development and creating an impression of white supremacy, we may have broken white privilege much earlier…and interracial couples would have been accepted much earlier. Back in the 1980s when I went to school in the Midwest some students spoke of western advancement (read that white people as they included the so-called Soviet industrial might) and non-white peoples including those in Singapore and Hong Kong belonged to the Third World.
Then recently, I ran into a guy from Germany with Asian ethnic features. I got to talk to him. He said that his grandfather was from Mongolia, and was deported by the East Germans after his mother was born and Mongolia is a friendly country. However, his friend’s grandfather married a white Armenian and that was fine.
So, you see, we don’t need laws in the books to practice Chinese Exclusion Act or even worse, the Page Act. Racism in Alabama is as bad as it was in the 1970s. Why else will they impose Voter ID laws (fair enough) and then close DMVs in African American Areas, and there are currently plenty of laws in the opposite direction strengthening civil rights, etc. Why are white sororities still segregated? Before anyone starts about black sororities, I should say that in Alabama many do have Jewish and Asian members…so we don’t need any laws in the books. People think and practice what they think. And the ex-Soviets are among the worst, making monkey noises at football games and during the 1960s deporting one half of interracial couples.
No discriminatory laws in the books, but racism marches on in Alabama…
http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/10/university_of_alabama_must_add.html
Some things stay the same with or without laws.
@ David.
Thanks for the education. I did not know that the ex-Soviet blocs were practicing racism so widespread. However, I cannot help but to wonder whether your perception and opinion are correct or not. I read on the internet once that a Chinese-American man went to Russia in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s and he tried dating some of the Russian and Ukrainian girls. He wrote a blog about his experience (I forgot his name and the blog now and so I cannot provide proof); he stated that he had more dates with those hot white Russian and Ukrainian girls than in the U.S. He was able to have many more dates than ni the U.S. So, what is say is in sharp contrast to his blog. Therefore, I am not certain what you heard is correct or not.
I also once talked to an Iranian/American man; he was not white but looked middle eastern. He went to Russia in the early 2000’s as well and he said that he had the time of his life. He said tht the girls there loved him and his fellow American boys. He said that the Russian girls in Moscow were very predisposed to have sex with him and his fellow boys. FYI only.
Any thoughts?
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/24/football/world-cup-fifa-russia-racism-football/
https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/the-grim-spectre-of-racism-in-russian-football
http://cers.leeds.ac.uk/files/2015/01/Racism_in_Russia-Alice-Bennett-2014.pdf
http://www.worldcrunch.com/world-affairs/in-russia-the-worst-kind-of-racism-arrives-on-campus/c1s5477/
http://observer.com/2015/08/in-modern-ukraine-people-of-color-need-not-apply/
http://www.minorityperspective.co.uk/2012/05/31/hindus-concerned-about-racist-violence-against-indians-in-ukraine/
@Fred. If you need more evidence please let me know!
By the way there are a lot of white Russian-Asian couples. However, you will find most of them in the Central Asian Republics, China or Korea…not in Russia or Ukraine.
@ David.
Thanks for the education. I was blindly unware of how pervasive racism was in Russia and the Ukraine.
But you have to admit though that Russian and/or Ukranian girls are very pretty. Correct?
The story kinda reminded me of this sad and shameful period in English history shortly after WWII.
Many Chinese sailors were sought out by the British gov to rebuild the country. Thousands came to the UK and were given jobs in engineering or menial work. Many married and had children with local women.
But then after a few years the government forcibly repatriated these men sending them back to China. Often not a word was said to their families on what happened. They did not even know what had happened to the men and the wives and children were subjected to shame and poverty due to the loss of the men. Many thought the men had abandoned them. Sometimes the husbands tried to get word back to their families or tried to sneak back into England to see them but were denied entry.
Read here for one such account:
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33962179
There’s even a website for the children of these sailors.
http://www.halfandhalf.org.uk/index_main.htm
@ Hopelessmisanthrope.
Thank you for the article. I was not aware of the deportation and the mistreatment by the British gov’t post WW II. I always thought that the Brits were so well renowed for the fairness as I learned in law school about their common law.
@Hopelessmissanthrope. These days they do not even let them in if the individual had married a British, particularly if it involves a non-white foreigner with a white Brit. One example is Venetia in Tokyo. She gave up coming to the UK with her Japanese husband and literally became Japanese. Her kids never went to England although they had met the extended family in Japan. There are several examples of Brits married to Asians not being allowed to go back to the UK although their kids are considered Brits.
Then you have the Aussies. Snodgrass family in South East Asia (they are Chinese by culture) although the great grandpa was Aussie white. Great grandma who was Chinese origin and was deported for marrying a white man back in 1938. There are rumors that Prime Minister Holt was pushed into a shark invested area from a boat because these people did not approve of him dismantling the policy of splitting couples based on race. But, no one has confirmed this.
One thing is never changes with the white Brits. They always want a one way street. Whereas Americans rarely travel abroad, these racist Brits love to work abroad on fat salaries but don’t want to reciprocate.
@Fred. There are pretty women in all groups. Many will say that Brazilian and Venezuelan women are prettier. Your wife may be white looking but in the US she will be Hispanic unless she migrated directly from Portugal.
I have worked in Russia and China. Never saw any Asian-white couples even in Moscow. However, in China, saw a lot of them including Asian Men and Russian women. They told me that it is outright dangerous for such couples in Russia or for that matter anywhere in Eastern Europe and that they will never go back even for a visit. They are plain afraid.
We have quite a few Asian male-Russian female couples in the Philippines as well (they take up quite a large share of am/wf couples I meet where I live despite coming here in smaller numbers than whites of many other nationalities). A lot of those couples do come back Russia too for a visit, and have a good time doing so (even posting about it in FB, etc), from what I heard. Just had to put that out there, coming from a millennial born in the late 1980s at a stage in his life where he’s out meeting people.
Not to discount what you have been through considering the era you grew up in and the times you have lived through, but things can and do change (even for the better) so don’t give up hope that at least things would get better for your children and grandchildren, etc. Thanks.
One final note. People can believe anything they want. They can believe that there is no racism in Russia. For instance, despite all the evidence that white American women rarely date or marry Indian or Asian men, many Indians believe that white American women are easy and that any Indian can take 99% of white American women to bed with them. And then the Indian guy comes to Alabama and gets beat up for trying to pick a white girl and he is surprised and stunned.
@ David.
Thanks for your reply. I was not aware the Indians think that 99% of the white girls are considered easy and that they find out to the contrary once they try. Where did you obtain this statistc from? How do you know this fact?
@ David.
When you lived and worked in Moscow, did you find that you were able to date any of the hot and sexy Russian girls? If so, what were they like? Or were you discrimianted against by them?
@David. Listen to any Indian TV show. Heard it on several Indian TV shows coming from India while visiting Singapore last year. Strange the talk show hosts and the audience live in a state of delusion. The talk show host says that 99% of US white women are easy and the audience agrees. Probably they are easy by Indian standards but they wont be easy with Indians…something never discussed in India and the reasons why. In fact, my colleague says that he had grown up in India in the 1960s but never heard of the UK racist Enoch Powell until he came to the US. They complained about the British Empire but they portrayed modern Britain as peaceful and tranquil and not a word about racism. While the Indian textbooks cover the racism of the British Empire during the 1800s, not a word on current events, the racism that exists today in the UK and to some extent practiced by the government when they deny non-white spouses of UK citizens visas. Wonder whether Traher and her husband cannot go back permanently to the UK because of this bigotry. As I responded to the other gentleman, this kind of nonsense survives and thrives under the Cameron Government and her racist and bigoted Home Affairs Minister Theresa May. If Cameron lets her she will make sure that none of these spouses enter the UK. This is the kind of stuff they don’t teach children in Singapore or India.
I did not live and work in Moscow but I went there frequently. May 23, 1997 was the longest day of my life. Got up 5:00 AM in Alma Aty, Kazakhstan. Went for briefing at the office of the international org I work for..then went to the airport and flew to Moscow around 9:00 AM. Landed in Moscow around 10:30 AM local time and from there went to the office reaching there at 12:00 noon. Worked there until 5:00 PM and few to Budapest reaching Budapest around midnight. Russian women were willing to go out on dates but they were afraid of the racist Mafia and so only went to certain restaurants in international hotels. For instance, a non-white does not show up with a blonde in McDonalds. Actually saw a lot more Russian-Chinese and Russian-Korean couples in Alma Aty, Beijing and Seoul. If a non-white goes to some white village with his blonde girlfriend, no you wont find the bodies…you will disappear.
@ David.
Thanks once againg for educating me on the affairs in India. I am glad that you were able to cite to sources such as the Indian TV show as I thought that you may have been simply making baseless statements.
As for your visit to Russia and Moscow, I am glad that you had a good time there. You should try giving Russian women a chance. I heard they are not imbued with Westernized ideas and are a little more traditional. I do not know now if the Western influence has now changed their tradtional ways of thinking though. I just heard from many men that they are super pretty (tall, great figures, and open to people of color). After all, in Russian history, the people have been exposed to various cultures and races (e.g. Gingus Khan, Mongolian rule, Chinese influence in the far east, Muslim infuence from the south, European infuence from the West, etc.). Due to such multi faceted exposure the women are not so prejudiced against others.
By the way, have you every tried to date a Western woman? May be you should give it a try if you have not already done so.
Oop! I meant to write “Fred”
Beauty comes from all over the world, all colors and races. But, the sharpest white women are from Russia and Ukraine, perhaps due to the hybrid nature. Over history they have mixed with the Mongolians and out by the Far East, they have mixed with the Chinese.
@ David.
Well, I am glad that you have positive things to say about Russian and Ukrainian women. Based on all the previous comments by you, you seemed to be so narrowly focused on telling the readers how racist the Western world and Caucasian people are.
In the mid and late 1990’s two boys one of whom could speak Russian fluently and I was seriously contemplating a trip to the former USSR for a tour and flirt with the girls there. We wanted to see the old Soviet era relics, the beautiful museum, sample the Vodka, and even date a few Russian girls. Our plan included trying to pick up on some Russian girls as we heard that they were very predisposed to go with foreign men especially from the U.S. and other Western countries. But some how one of the boys said that his dad was gravely ill and thus could not go. The other said that he had too much work and opted to cancel out. This left me, myself and I to go alone. Since I could neither speak Russian nor had I a brave heart, I opted not to go especially when the news back then said that the crime rate was ever increasing with shootings, robberies, and the acute poverty feeding this crime frenzy. At that time Russia and former USSR republics were experiencing severe financial crisis when they chose to change from a socialist to a capitalist economy. I was too scared to go alone and hence I lost the chance. So, this was the closest I came to experimenting with trying to pick up on a Russian girl.
What about you?
@Fred. I am much older than most people on this board. Perhaps older than Ms. Chen of Seattle as well, who we have not heard much from lately….a very level-headed woman. I have seen a lot from the 1960s on, although did not live in the US at that time. If you had to put up with Enoch Powell in the UK, when I ended up loosing a lot of white British friends who were living in Asia, when I found out that they just wanted a one way street, you will understand my viewpoint. Overnight young British folks including white British girls and women will not even talk to you and look the other way. All it takes is one politician and it has worldwide implications. I hear to some extent, Trump has had the same impact. People tell me of friendships lost at least in the US. Just a couple of many other events and incidents. So you see where I am coming from.
@Fred. If you want to pick up Russian women, you do it in China, Singapore or Brazil, not in Russia or most of the US. You never know how much they are involved with the mafia. One of my colleagues tried to pick up a couple of girls in Moscow..the mafia showed up. They were girls eyed for trafficking to the west.
@ David.
“One of my colleagues tried to pick up a couple of girls in Moscow..the mafia showed up. They were girls eyed for trafficking to the west.”
I can see that you love to put me in suspense by not telling the outcome.
Then what happened when the mafia showed up. Did the maffia threaten to hurt your colleague and then prevented the pick-up in motion? Was your colleague an Asian man? Did the girls at first seem receptive but for maffia interference?
Since you are much older and experienced much racism against you and witnessed a lot of it in your days, perhaps nowadays things have changed. According the Pew Study on interracial marriages and intercultural marriages, the number has increased from your days in the 1960’s and 1970’s. So, perhaps you should view things in a more modern perspective. What do you think?
@Fred. The colleague is white. The mafia did warn my colleague. The women were receptive. Yes, things have changed since the 1960s. Even in 1984, you cannot go to a homecoming parade in a Indiana Midwestern school without having some kid as young as 8 throwing a racial slur at you…and this without a female in your arms. Now things have changed for the better perhaps due to the number of Japanese firms providing employment.
California was pretty racist even as late as the early 1990s. However, a recent headlines screamed that it is not Baywatch California anymore with the blonde women replaced by Asian women on the beaches at least in a few places. However, has it changed in Alabama or the south..I think not…
http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2015/09/south_asian_support_group_in_h.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/30-years-on-death-row-exoneration-60-minutes/
What is the difference? Whites became minority in California. It will change when whites become a minority in Alabama or Louisiana…a long way to go. Mississippi will be the first to crack.
And as I said California was pretty racist before whites became a minority…
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/articleComments/Tadich-Grill-s-ex-owner-It-wasn-t-about-Gene-6596635.php
Do you really think she would not have been disowned for marrying an Asian?
Here is more evidence of Eastern European former communist bigotry…this time their descendants in the US and from California…
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/nevius/article/32-years-later-SF-family-shuns-daughter-for-6594519.php
http://news.yahoo.com/attacks-black-fans-show-tide-fan-racism-ukraine-172834518–spt.html
Hi David.
Thanks for the insight into attacks why racists against the blacks in the football stadium. I will be certain not to attend even though I am not black. I guess I will not be going there any time soon to see any games or to try to pick up on any Ukrainian girls.
But you have to admit that the Ukrainian girls are sooooooo pretty.
@Fred…thought you were married. You may want to check out the rumors about a Chinese girl who disappeared in San Marino, CA back when it was an all white town back in the 1950s. You may also want to check out two Japanese war brides disappearing in Humboldt County, CA back in the 1950s.
Yes, I am married but I was just commenting on their beauty and nothing more. I will not seek out another woman to play with ever.
I will check out those suggestions. Thanks.
Fred
I have been talking about Southern US white women holding their noses and running away when an Asian guy asks for a date in Singapore. Here are cases of where southern white families run away when a black woman looks like a prospective date.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-bennett/black-girl-unnoticed_b_8499200.html
I am sure it happens with Asian and Asian American women. It happened in front of me in a town called Rossville, Indiana back in 1984. I am sure it happens frequently in the south. Only thing, no Asian woman has written about it. And yes, it happens in Australia all the time.
@ David.
Thank you for showing me the article about the difficulties of those bigger, beautiful black women who cannot successfully pine for love from the white men. I do agree that racism exists in this world, but it may not be as pervasive as you think. It seems that the experience of Asian women are different from that of the black ladies. That is, there seem to be a more disproportionate amount WM/AF couples out there than WM/BF ones. Thus, we cannot conclusively assert whites are prejudiced. In fact, WM/AF couples are so common that no gives a second glance, but when a black girl and a white man are together, they even make me do a double-take.
If there are so many WM/AF couples out there, then racist attitudes of whites is not so prevalent. Do you agree?
What happened in Rossville, Indiana in 1984? Can you tell me?
I was at a world famous university not too far from Rossville. Racism was rampant at that University, although it has made a 180 degree change. When you visit the campus you will not witness lot of the crap that went on until the late 1980s, that is until Subaru literally took the town by storm, became the second largest employer and set in motion the process that has led to many foreign corporations endowing funds to the university, particularly the engineering school.
Well, sometime in late August 1984, a colleague of ours invited me to go to his home for dinner. I went along although I have heard of the KKK in Rossville and neighboring Frankfort and Elwood. His sister in law was visiting from Dallas, TX. She was not very comfortable that I was in her brother in law’s home. However, she was rather diplomatic. Then it all changed. A phone call came from her son based in Hawaii and she spoke briefly with him, began wailing, and was literally sick to her stomach. Went to bathroom and threw up. The brother in law took the phone to make sure no one was dead. I excused myself and asked him to drop me off in the campus if he could and he did. He barely spoke the entire ride. I did not push the issue but he told me that his sister in law was ok when I saw him the next day and that we should arrange another invite. I never went back. I did not know what really happened until the spring of 2003, full 19 years later. He introduced a hapa Asian to me as a new student and the niece of out ex-colleague who was only 16 at that time. Then I told him of the strange even nearly twenty years before. Then he told me the story. Her father was based in Hawaii in the mid 1980s where he met his mother who is Japanese American. When he called to inform that they are engaged her mother took ill as she was against race mixing. I said I witnessed everything back in 1984. Supposedly the grandkids never knew their grandparents and this was her first visit to the mainland. The grandparents never attended the wedding either. Whether they reconciled or not, I do not know. Just saying!
David.
Thanks for giving me the details of your encounter at Roseville, Indiana. I think you had told the story before in one of your prior comments but you had not delved into such meticulous details as you did now.
I am happy that you met the half Asian/Caucasian girl who was the product of the unwelcomed marriage between the Japanese woman and the Caucasian man whose mother opposed the said marriage.
I am now looking and laughing at it as it is so funny to see these old and antiquated attitudes. I sincerely hope that all are doing well.
Keep up the greatness, David, and don’t be so consumed by thinking such negative thoughts such as racism. Keep a big and bright smile on your face.
I will give you one more thing to laugh at. A young white American woman in Singapore told me that it is her preference to date only white men and that it is not racism. I told her that I respect her preference. However, it is my preference to think of her as a racist, and that she will respect my preference as I respect hers. She got pretty angry.
@ David.
Yes, it is funny. But I do not think that if a white American woman prefers to date a white man only, it makes her a racist. Racism is based on hate of another race. She did not state that she views other races with hate or with disdain. Did she? Nor did she say that she thinks the Caucasians are the superior race. Did she?
After all, when I started my dating life, I wanted only to date slim and pretty Asian girls and did not consider going with other races. Does this make me a racist? Now I have changed. When I had no success with those slim and sexy Asian girls, I gave the Western women a chance and now I love them so much that I exclude others now. Now am I a racist in favor of the whites? I do not think so.
Take care.
@Fred…each person’s opinion and just like the white American woman’s preference to date only white men, some people or a lot of people will prefer to call them racists. However, if you want my honest opinion this is what it is…it comes to white privilege. If your kids are white, you get good jobs, except possibly in science and engineering. You get to make money off the roles that should go to Asian Americans, but ends up going to white people, although the white British who will not give a role to a white American in their shows, are the major beneficiaries of Hollywood whitewashing.
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/29/im-not-buying-emma-stone-asian-american
You get to do Yellowface in Mikado even in a ultra liberal white city of Seattle…
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/stereotypes-mikado-stir-controversy-seattle-n157306
And of course at the University of Missouri, you get to represent a black group with a straight face, and at the same time a bunch of racially exclusive sororities, whose white female members will hold their collective noses at the sight of even an Asian woman…and in the process literally attack a minority media person and successfully convince the blacks that this Asian guy is a rep of white media….
http://fox2now.com/2015/11/11/mizzous-director-of-greek-life-placed-on-leave-following-confrontation-with-photographer/
Whiteness means you get your job back while they use and dispose of a minority woman in the show Criminal Minds…
http://www.cinemablend.com/television/AJ-Cook-Returning-Criminal-Minds-96837.html
And in politics, if you are a white female, you get to attack a black man for the problems your father created with a straight face and the media will give you time.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/liz-cheney-barack-obama-paris-215852
Now if Carson had done something like Cheney do you think his son or daughter will get the time of day? Now that is white privilege.
You can look at CNBC and track how many white people are given air time such as Peter Schiff and Jeff Cox despite making wrong predictions. And in the National Journal John Kraushaar who made a totally wrong prediction in the last Presidential elections got promoted the following day…November 7.
With that kind of privilege, sure, if I were a white woman, I will prefer white men…to guarantee all the privileges my kids would enjoy. So it has nothing to do with facial features or good looks. It is about keeping the privilege of even getting a role in a show such as Mikado at the expense of another Japanese. I used to wonder why Asians are critical of white women wearing Kimono. it is not cultural appropriation, it is more like encroachment….and one hundred years from now, history of Kimono will be rewritten,
So I hope now you know where I come from.
1. @Fred…each person’s opinion and just like the white American woman’s preference to date only white men, some people or a lot of people will prefer to call them racists. However, if you want my honest opinion this is what it is…it comes to white privilege. If your kids are white, you get good jobs, except possibly in science and engineering. You get to make money off the roles that should go to Asian Americans, but ends up going to white people, although the white British who will not give a role to a white American in their shows, are the major beneficiaries of Hollywood whitewashing.
I will post some of the stuff which I think benefit whites by marrying other whites later.
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/29/im-not-buying-emma-stone-asian-american
You get to do Yellowface in Mikado even in a ultra liberal white city of Seattle…
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/stereotypes-mikado-stir-controversy-seattle-n157306