Introduction: A Short History of Afro-Korean Music and Identity
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Date
2020-12
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Journal of World Popular Music
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Abstract
[paragraph, not abstract] Though the tension between Korean business owners in America and African Americans during the 1992 Los Angeles riots and more recently post-George Floyd protests have grabbed the mainstream media’s attention, Koreans have been awkwardly caught between populations of white Americans and African Americans since the era of civil rights protests. Though blacks-only platoons were phased out during the Korea War (1950–53) by President Harry Truman, racial discrimination and segregation remained entrenched in barracks and in social life during the US military occupation of Korea throughout the latter part of the twentieth century. Camptown clubs for US military personnel in Korea were segregated—so much so that the violent protest described above broke out in 1971 motivated by black GIs upset by the de facto policies of segregation enacted by these clubs and their proprietors. It was Korean businesses that separated entertainers and sex workers who serviced white soldiers from those who serviced their black counterparts. More than two decades after the American military had desegregated, the racial tensions and disparities on US military bases continued, and extended to the nearby clubs and the music that they played. Desegregation was officially enacted by requiring music to be played for both black and white patrons. As stated by Capt. A. D. Malloy, who was then responsible for easing the racial tensions in the American military bases in Korea and headed the committee called GIT (Get It Together), “We check on the variety of music played in the clubs. They must mix it up; some soul, some rock, some country and western. If they don’t mix the music, you get … segregation” (Lea and Brown 1971: 12).
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Korea, popular music, rap, hip hop, African-American, race
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"A Short History of Afro-Korean Music and Identity" introduction to a special issue of the Journal of World Popular Music 7, no. 2 (February 2021): 115-124.
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