Race and Blackness in Colonial Korea, 1910-1919

• In Event: 476 - Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology Paper Session. Racial Formation and Mobilization in Comparative-Historical Perspective

Abstract

This paper highlights construction of race in colonial Korea under the mudan jungchi (militaristic rules, 1910 – 1919). In contrast to the assumption that race was not significant in colonial Korea due to racial akin-ness, this paper demonstrates the significance of race and blackness in the first decade of colonial Korea mainly due to the precolonial cultural familiarization of the colonized. Furthermore, the paper also points out the limits of existing scholarship that is trapped in the territory of one empire. By examining how the colonial dyadic relation was influenced by external factors, this paper calls for a broader approach in sociology of empire. Starting from the colonized, newspaper articles written by Koreans abroad after the colonial annexation reveal that Koreans still relied on the imagined racial hierarchy and anti-blackness as their status yardstick. In a similar context, since Koreans had also regarded the West, especially the U.S., as the original source of civilization prior to the colonial annexation, the colonial regime struggled to establish their legitimacy thus had to continuously reinvent the racial similarity that could in turn jeopardize their superiority. In addition, this paper also reveals how the Declaration of Independence on the day of the March First Movement was not only inspired by the self-determination principle by the President Wilson but also by racial hierarchy. Threatened by the pro-US sentiment of Koreans, the colonial regime eagerly denounced the U.S. by highlighting anti-black racism as well as re-emphasizing racial solidarity against white peril.

Author

• Jae Kyun Kim, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign