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Truehoop about Omri Casspi, the first Israeli player in the NBA, to be very interesting. Korean Americans and American Jews are in a comparable situation -- while they call America home, they have a visceral connection with the places outside of America. The interplay between the two places, symbolized by athletes, is an interesting mirror into how a mind of an immigrant operates.
You mean Jews and "Kews", as I just recently read in Bruce Cumings Korea's Place in the Sun. I thought that was sort of funny.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, I always hear Koreans compare themselves to Jews, but as a Jew myself, I don't see the connection as deep as Koreans want it to be. Both have uniquely tragic histories, but they are very different. And while there is a division on the Korean peninsula, the division between Zionist and non-Zionist Jews is quite different. (I'm non-Zionist)
Still, I'm happy to have Koreans perceive me as being different than "every other American in South Korea," whether I personally accept that to be the truth or not.
That's why the Korean was careful to stay with the word "comparable" and nothing stronger.
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