Election 2016: Being Korean In New York
Five Koreans living in America explain how they feel about this election.
ZINNIA KANG (KOREAN-AMERICAN, FEMALE, EMPLOYED)
Zinnia Kang is a Korean-American who was born in Brooklyn and she just voted for Hillary Clinton. But she isn’t particularly excited about the fact that she may have just helped America elect its first female president. Kang feels she has no choice in this election because “Trump is not a choice.” “In politics, there will always be some wheeling-and-dealing,” she said. “ But, do I trust [Hillary] 100%? No.” Kang explained that although it is nice that Clinton happens to be a woman, it doesn’t feel all that meaningful. Perhaps, because Clinton has been running for so long now, Kang said it feels “almost natural” that we would have a female president in 2016.
Kang has a big family. Her parents are in Long Island, one brother lives in Manhattan, another in New Jersey, and her sister lives out in Seattle. Although she hasn’t talked to them in detail about the election, she is confident that her siblings will all vote for Clinton because “they are not crazy.” Kang imagines her mom will vote for Clinton but is less sure about her father, who is much more conservative. Kang would be worried if Trump became president. “He just doesn’t understand how politics work,” she said.
TAE KIM (KOREAN-AMERICAN, MALE, EMPLOYED)
After 20 years in America, Tae Kim doesn’t plan to vote in this election, and neither does his wife. Their disinterest stems largely from the fact that Kim doesn’t believe in either major party candidate. “If there were a candidate I felt strong support for,” he said. “I would vote.”
Kim admits that Trump’s policies are worrying but thinks that both candidates would disadvantage the country. Korea has a female President, he said, who has been caught up in scandal: “Her performance has been disappointing.”
Kim doesn’t discuss politics with his two kids either, who are in first and seventh grades. He believes that whatever happens in this election, it won’t really affect their lives. Whoever wins, “I will still stay here,” Kim said. “My life is here, my properties, my job.”
ANTHONY CHO (KOREAN NON-AMERICAN, EMPLOYED)
Anthony Cho has lived in New York for eight months, after finishing up his Ph.D. in Seoul, Korea. He is here to study English but works part-time at a coffee bar in Koreatown. He can’t vote, but even if he could, he said he wouldn’t. Although Cho admits his conservative values would lead him to favor Trump, he feels this election has led him to question America’s version of democracy. The negative attacks between the two candidates have shocked him. As a Korean, Cho explained, he always saw the United States as just that: united. But in this election, he believes the “country is doing the opposite and divisions [between states] are becoming stronger.”
Back in South Korea, Cho said, many people are against Clinton becoming president. This is largely because she is seen as being less enthusiastic about the Korean-American Foreign Trade Agreement. He said that although Trump has also been tough on trade agreements, his focus is more on building up the domestic market to support a failing American economy. Regardless of the outcome, Cho will “definitely stay in America.”
GRACE PARK (KOREAN NON-AMERICAN, FEMALE, EMPLOYED)
Grace Park isn’t American. She has lived in New York for twelve years and possesses a Green Card, making her eligible to vote in local and state elections but not federal ones. If she were to vote, however, it would definitely not be for Trump. But Park also doesn’t want to vote for Hillary. “I honestly feel lucky that I don’t have to vote,” she said. “Politics really belong to the citizens of this country.”
In South Korea, where the country’s first female president holds office, Park explained that gender stereotypes will never fully go away. She said that even though a woman technically runs the country, she is “just a puppet,” and there are others (mostly men) who really control her and pull the strings behind the scene. Park wonders if Hillary would be susceptible to the same control, but at least “she is better than Trump.”
Park’s Green Card is about to expire and her friends had warned her to renew it before the election because “if Trump wins, I probably would have to wait another 12 years to get it again.”
HAN PARK (KOREAN NON-AMERICAN, MALE, STUDENT)
“I supported Bernie Sanders,” said Han Park. Park just finished his MFA program in New York City and is currently working under the OPT allowance, a one-year, visa-free work period granted to foreigners who graduate from Masters-level programs in the U.S.
Despite the fact that he isn’t eligible to vote, Park is heavily engaged in the dynamics of this election.
If he could vote, it would be a tough choice. “Hillary is a better person,” Park said, “but I would probably vote for Trump.” Voting for Clinton would be equivalent to “saying that you’re happy with the current corporate structure” in his eyes. Whereas electing Trump — “even though he’s horrible,” admitted Park — would produce some sort of change in the country, even if that change is driven by citizen backlash against him.
Park was a Sanders supporter because he believes that welfare in America is broken. When compared to European welfare systems, America is so far behind. Park believed Sanders’ policies could have changed that.
Despite Trump’s anti-immigrant stance, Park said, “America is an immigrant country and he can’t stop all of us.” But staying in America isn’t a big priority for Park: “There are a lot more countries to live in in this world than America.”
