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  1. #1
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    Are You from South Korea?' Harvard Student Speaks Out About Trump Event

    Are You from South Korea?' Harvard Student Speaks Out About Trump Event

    by Emil Guillermo
    Oct 19 2015, 8:48 pm ET

    Speaking truth to power is one thing, but speaking truth to Donald Trump?

    That possibility of "trumping" the Donald didn't intimidate 20-year-old Joseph Choe last week at the No Labels Problem Solver Convention in New Hampshire featuring the leading candidate in the Republican primary field. But on his own, the Harvard sophomore decided to correct Trump on a misstatement the candidate made about South Korea's contribution to the defense of the peninsula.

    "I just wanted to get the facts straight with Mr. Trump," Choe told NBC News. "He specifically said [in the past] that the South Korean government pays 'nothing,' which is not true. South Korea pays $861 million, which is almost half the cost."

    But it wasn't Choe's question that made the headlines: it was Trump's response.

    "Harvard?" Trump asked, noticing Choe's sweatshirt. "You go to Harvard?"

    When Trump didn't get an immediate answer, he became impatient with Choe. "He's choking!" Trump jabbed.

    "I was frustrated," Choe told NBC News about the moment. "I was waiting for the microphone to come over from across the room. That didn't mean I was choking."

    Even as he finally got the microphone and began to ask his question about South Korea, Choe was interrupted by Trump.

    "Are you from South Korea?" Trump asked.

    "I'm not," Choe replied. "I was born in Texas, raised in Colorado."

    ""My best guess for what [Trump] did to me was because he knew that if I kept on talking, he would have had to confront the fact that he made a factually incorrect statement, which means he would have had to apologize.""

    Some in the audience laughed and, soon after, Choe lost the floor.

    "When he abruptly and rudely asked me whether I was from South Korea, I was taken aback," said Choe, an American born to Korean immigrant parents educated in the U.S. Choe said he identifies as a Korean American and says he values both parts equally. "I do not think that being both a Korean and American is mutually exclusive."

    Last week's encounter with Trump is not the first time Choe corrected a high-profile political figure. In April, Choe asked Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a question regarding comfort women during Abe's visit to Harvard's Kennedy School. Abe's answer resulted in breaking news in Korea.

    "I apologize in advance if my question comes off as provocative, but it has to do with a topic that weighs heavily on my heart," Choe began at the April event. "As someone with ties to South Korea, I know the issue of comfort women is a source of contention between my country and yours."

    He questioned Abe on the "solid proof that shows the Japanese government and military were directly involved in the comfort women system," and asked if Abe "still den[ied] the Japanese government's explicit involvement in the subjugation of hundreds of thousands of women into coerced sexual slavery."

    Joseph Choe is a senior campus editor for the Harvard Political Review

    After a translation from English to Japanese, Abe avoided the question on his continued denial of history, but said, "When it comes to the comfort women issue, my heart aches when I think about those people who were victimized by human trafficking and were subject to immeasurable pain and suffering." Abe then went on to talk about Japan's plan for reducing sexual violence toward women.

    Choe expressed his disappointment at Abe's response to Korean media after the event. "I didn't expect him to make a new apology for the past," Choe said. "But I was very disappointed when he pointed to Japan's efforts to support women's rights. How can he talk about increasing women's rights while they continue to deny the past?"

    After that, Choe thought he was prepared for anything Trump could throw at him, but Trump's reaction based on Choe's race upset him.

    "First of all, I do not see how that question was relevant," Choe told NBC News. "What if I actually were from South Korea? Would that have made my opinions less legitimate? I know some people feel like Mr. Trump's question was perfectly fine, but it wasn't. Not only was he rude cutting me off and not letting me finish, but it's obvious he asked that only because I look Asian."

    Choe continued, "Whenever I encounter micro-aggressions, or even just outright racism, I try to maintain my composure and have honest conversations with the perpetrators. I've learned that often, these hurtful words and thoughts come from ignorance, not hatred, so a productive conversation usually helps."

    It wouldn't be the first time for Choe to encounter an example of what he called a "micro-aggression." Choe recalled how the first time he experienced something like that he was when growing up.

    "One of my classmates in middle school would call me a 'chink' for fun," Choe said. "I was young then so I didn't know the history and hatred behind the word. But the tone he used was filled with so much disgust that this in itself bothered me."

    A few weeks later, Choe said he went to a local Korean store and bought some Korean snacks. "I gave it to him to show him a piece of my culture," Choe said. "He never bothered me again."

    But last week, Choe didn't have any offerings for Trump.

    ""What if I actually were from South Korea? Would that have made my opinions less legitimate?""

    "Mr. Trump is a difficult person to read," Choe said. "He has made a whole lot of outlandish, incorrect statements in the past, and he never apologizes. My best guess for what he did to me was because he knew that if I kept on talking, he would have had to confront the fact that he made a factually incorrect statement, which means he would have had to apologize. But I guess he couldn't bring himself to doing that, so he cut me off and went on his own rant."

    Choe, who speaks both Spanish and Korean and has traveled and worked in Chile and Korea, said no one suggested he attend the event. As a senior campus editor for the Harvard Political Review, he is active politically, but says he's not tied down to any one party. "No one is perfect, and there are different characteristics of each candidate [both Democrat and Republican] that I admire," he said.

    Choe said he has no regrets about last week's confrontation.

    "Misstatements are extremely dangerous, especially for an influential figure like Mr. Trump," Choe said. "Ignorance can be easily perpetuated, if we ignore the truth."

    http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-am...-trump-n447496
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  2. #2
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    Joseph, please do not be offended because someone asked you if you are from South Korea when of all the questions you could have asked a Presidential candidate, you choose to use your time and moment to confront him with a statement, not a question, but a statement about the $861 million a year that South Korea pays to fund something in regards to US troops guarding the border of South Korea.

    When Trump makes his statement about "nothing", he is referring to the total loss of income from the United States with respect to the relationship. He has always included the trade deficit with South Korea as a cost to the US for its military presence in South Korea. He combines them because they are both inter-related and inter-connected due to unfair trade policies with South Korea.

    The US trade deficit with South Korea is over $25 billion a year, plus the almost $3 billion plus in military costs which probably aren't all-inclusive knowing the tricky accounting of Defense Departments, such not counting US side support and administration costs for this endeavor or military retirements and pensions once these soldiers come home. That's why the net advantage to the US of this military and trade relationship is "nothing". It's actually worse than nothing, because it's worse than zero, it's a minus $27 billion, offsetting for the $861 million Korea contributes in some fashion, before adding in the actual costs not even attributed to the services, and the portion Korea does pay is probably upon close inspection, services, land and other what-not "in kind" that's not even cash money contributions to begin with.

    When you state in this interview that you are BOTH South Korean and American, then this is important to know because it's obviously important to you, so it was completely fair and reasonable for Trump to ask your background to learn this. If someone is seeking "truth" from someone else, they should be honest enough to provide it themselves, don't you think?

    You didn't tell him, I am both South Korean and American, born in Texas to immigrant parents from South Korea and raised in Colorado. If you'd said that, then you would have been truthful, and this would have also explained your irritation with his statements about South Korea. Most Americans who are only Americans, don't want to be footing the military bill of defending a foreign nation fully capable of defending itself who is also eating our lunch on trade deficits.

    That's why of all the many and numerous good questions you could have asked Mr. Trump about our country and our people, what his plans are to improve our lot, create more jobs here, stop illegal immigration, improve civil rights, balance our budgets, cut useless spending, correct trade deficits, and on and on and on, you instead chose to use your time to ask a question that was intended to defend South Korea at the expense of the American People. That was your point, that was your purpose, Trump saw through it and that's why he cut you off.

    "Misstatements are extremely dangerous, especially for an influential figure like Mr. Trump," Choe said. "Ignorance can be easily perpetuated, if we ignore the truth."
    Trump didn't ignore the truth, he saw that you were there to defend South Korea at the expense of the American People, and he wasn't going to allow you to use him time to do that.

    "When he abruptly and rudely asked me whether I was from South Korea, I was taken aback," said Choe, an American born to Korean immigrant parents educated in the U.S. Choe said he identifies as a Korean American and says he values both parts equally. "I do not think that being both a Korean and American is mutually exclusive."
    If you are American, you can not be both Korean and American, you can only be American, with only one loyalty to the American People.

    For your information, Joseph:

    Theodore Roosevelt

    “In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”

    ― Theodore Roosevelt (1907)
    http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/2600...st-that-if-the

    And that young Joseph Choe, is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
    Last edited by Judy; 10-20-2015 at 12:43 AM.
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