Black Man Verbally Assaulted By Racist on Bus in Korea

A Reddit user by the name of korexpat posted an experience where he witnessed a Black man being called the “n-word” by a Korean man while riding public transportation.

“Call me a n****r again,” a voice can be heard saying.

“You’re a f*cking n****r,” another man seethed. The man who uttered the insult then grabbed at the camera, and two voices can be heard arguing in Korean.

As the cameraman readjusts his phone, the aggressive man lashed out again. “You can’t record anything, you f*cking idiot!” he said before hitting the phone, knocking it off focus for the last time.

Korexpat explained what happened in their Reddit post:

“it’s not me filming. i’m as white as snow.

“this is on the Number 02 bus in HBC/Itaewon. anyone who’s ridden that knows it’s tiny. it’s like a freaking circus car. the person filming is a tall black guy. he’s 6’3”. that’s 1.90m tall. i’m only 1.78, and i have a problem in the 02 bus. someone who’s 1.90m tall can’t even stand up all the way in there. so he was crouching down behind the driver, trying to stay out of everyone’s way, off to the side, just minding his own business.

“Korean guy gets on the bus, sees him, and the first thing he says is ‘Stand up n****r!’. Then the rest of the altercation you can see.”

Korexpat also explained what happened after the phone stopped filming.

“After this video was taken, the police were called. They refused to open a case, despite the Korean being guilty of at least 3 separate crimes: 1) Defamation; 2) Public insult (모욕); and 3) Assault (폭행). Their excuse was: “no-one was hurt”. Wow, good job there as usual, korean police.”

The video was widely shared outside of Reddit and made its way to FaceBook; incidentally, a friend of the Korean man viewed the video and decided to tag him in it. This prompted the man to share his side of the story on the FaceBook post.

Korexpat detailed his account as such:

“For the sake of objectivity, i’ll post the korean guy’s side of the story:

“So some people in a facebook group actually recognized the korean guy, and called him out and tagged him. the korean guy claims that the black guy was sitting on the floor in the bus (the black guy filming even said he was crouching down in the corner to try and stay out of everyone’s way), and he (the korean guy) ‘kindly’ told him to get up. the korean guy then claims that the black guy got aggressive and called him ‘ching chong’, which is when he (the korean guy) retaliated with the n-word.

“Personally, i don’t buy a word of that. unfortunately it’s the korean guy’s word against hard video evidence. nothing about the korean guy’s demeanor or actions suggests that he ‘kindly’ told him to get up. the korean guy got called out in a facebook group and of course is going to try and play the victim and make it seem like he was provoked.”

Netizens offered their opinions on the altercation.

Korexpat is frustrated with the lack of police response but hopes that people will watch the video to see the foreigner experience in South Korea. “I hope everyone can share this video to get this disgusting act out there and raise awareness of what foreigners in korea have to put up with on a regular basis.”

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