JC
If you are “mixed blood” and in Korea, you can finally expect to get some support. The Korea Herald reports on a new organization that is being formed which will advocate for Amerasians.

The Korea League Association of International Family, is poised to be established this Thursday and will become the first legal advocate group for people of mixed race after being authorized by the government.

The group’s president, Bae Ki-chul, himself a mixed-race person whose father was an Italian-American GI, has hopes of changing the lot of the Amerasians - a term coined for offspring of an Asian and a Westerner, more often than not an American serviceman. Amerasians are mostly an unwanted legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War and relationships, forcible and otherwise, between Korean women and servicemen which did not work out.

“It is not an individual problem, but a social problem, but the government has never been serious about biracial people. It tries to hide the problem,” Bae said in an interview The Korea Herald.

He said this country, which prides itself on the homogeneity of its population, should abandon its long-standing prejudice toward biracial people. “Biracial people are heartbroken because of those who are obsessed with pure blood. But throughout Korean history, Korea has been invaded tons of times, meaning that few of us have pure blood. Why not get along well with one another?” he asked.