Bringing the Marginalized into Conversations about American Raciality - Erin Kane - Keely Gaeta - Emily Norris

MILITARIZED MIGRATIONS BY CRYSTAL MUN-HYE BAIK

When learning about historical events that the United States was involved in, it is often the case that the U.S. will be depicted as the benevolent actor. The United States has taken it upon itself to be the self-appointed leader of the Free World. In many instances, the U.S. justifies their involvement by claiming to protect other countries / nations from some sort of malevolent force under the banner of multiculturalism. In the case of the Korean War specifically, the United States justified its occupation of South Korea by emphasizing the need to protect it from communism that loomed in North Korea. This resulted in the “dominant discourse of the Korean War, which champions the United States and South Korea as shining beacons of free democracy while demonizing North Korea as a savage communist regime responsible for warfare and division” (62 Baik). Even today, this similar discourse and demonization of North Korea continues. Any sort of diplomatic relations with North Korea are looked at as a success in terms of the American Presidency. North Korea continues to be spoken about as if they are unwilling to cooperate and they are continually demonized as a country. The current discourse focuses on the fact that North Korea has nuclear weapons and it is the United State’s goal to force them to denuclearize. This example particularly paints North Korea in a negative light while also painting the United States as the savior and benevolent leader. Due to all of the biased discourse surrounding the Korean War and North Korea to this day, it is important to check the sources that one is learning from. Crystal Baik emphasizes the importance of oral history as a diasporic memory practice. It is important to hear the stories from the people who were actually affected by the Korean War and have first-hand knowledge and experiences. Oral history is one way that people can learn and better understand the course of events as they happened from the perspective of someone other than the United States.

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