I did not give it this name. It was affectionately given by the foreigner community here in Seoul. As you can imagine from the package, the Negro Bar was dubbed this particular name because of the package's character. It is actually called 까마쿤 (ka-ma-kun) or The Black Crunch Bar. This name is interesting because the translation is Oh! It's too dark. Being a culture obsessed with looks, especially with the usage of whitening cream, I'm not surprised to find this icecream bar. Although it is a play on cookies and cream icecream and a Crunch Bar, I wonder if the Lotte marketing execs ever stopped to think, "Is this culturally and ethnically biased?"
It boasts the slogan Now there's a crunch bar for every craving. Check it out everywhere! The foreigner community consists of about 1 million legal and illegal residents. That's a little over 1% of the population. Every new school year, more and more foreigners flock to Korea to take advantage of high wages and an unlimited supply of soju and megju never having to face a curfew. They come here facing a homogenous society who think the best English teachers are those with blonde hair and blue eyes. Many students are afraid of black teachers. I've heard of an instance where a student went back to her old teacher upset because she now had a black instructor. My students think I'm black or from Africa because my skin color is not "white". In one critical thinking project, my students were required to play as presidents from different countries and have spies find secret information. One group had Lee Myung-bak and Barack Obama as their opposing sides with spies and double agents going to either side. In the end, Obama was killed. As part of the lesson, we encourage students to ask the presenting group questions to better understand the project and foster critical thinking skills. "Why did you kill Obama?" The presenting group hesitated and finally answered, "Because he is black."
The idea that "foreigners are bad/dirty" is propagated even more since foreigners are required to undergo HIV and drug testing and submit criminal background checks when foreigners who are ethnically Korean do not have to. To read more on how Korea views foreign English teachers, click here.
Well Korea, foreigners are everywhere! Although Korea was one of the poorest countries a half-century ago, it has made strides in pursuing an open-door economic policy (11th largest economy) and forward-thinking attitude (Western fashion, music, movies, and culture). Although it wants to be seen as a cosompolitan society, it needs to think twice about what ideas they pursue versus what ideas they promote.
The idea that "foreigners are bad/dirty" is propagated even more since foreigners are required to undergo HIV and drug testing and submit criminal background checks when foreigners who are ethnically Korean do not have to. To read more on how Korea views foreign English teachers, click here.
Well Korea, foreigners are everywhere! Although Korea was one of the poorest countries a half-century ago, it has made strides in pursuing an open-door economic policy (11th largest economy) and forward-thinking attitude (Western fashion, music, movies, and culture). Although it wants to be seen as a cosompolitan society, it needs to think twice about what ideas they pursue versus what ideas they promote.
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