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| A protester raises a fist during a demonstration against racism on Place de la Republique in Paris, June 9. Xinhua |
By Jung Min-ho
A Korean woman was a target of racism in the southern French city of Nice early this month, according to the Korean Embassy in France.
An embassy representative told The Korea Times Monday that local police were investigating a case in which the woman in her 20s was allegedly harassed on a tram on June 6 by a man who repeatedly called her "Chinese" and blamed her for "bringing the coronavirus here."
"We have not received investigation results yet," the representative said. "We were told that she filed a complaint with the police, demanding punishment (for the man)."
France's penal code forbids "insult," "defamation," or "incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence."
A video posted on YouTube by the woman on June 10 shows the man abusing her in French.
In her explanation of the video, the woman said the man sitting in front of her all of a sudden started making fun of her and her boyfriend by saying "You Chinese eat dogs and cats."
The reason she posted the video is to let people know the discrimination many Asians face in times of the coronavirus pandemic around the world, she said.
"Besides, the phrase 'And you think that I'm Chinese?' was not to demean Chinese but express my deep regret about the situation in which numerous people I've encountered here mistake me as Chinese and I have to explain my nationality every time," she wrote.
"Also I said it out of anger because most racists I met generalize all Asians to Chinese, thus disregarding respective countries in Asia. I understand that my phrase could be seen as disrespectful and I apologize for those who would have been hurt."
In a message to those who try to use the video to attack a certain race, she also said: "Hate comments about specific race and the BLM movement merely bring about another racism and corresponding victims who have to suffer the same trauma as I do. The only person who has to be judged is the man in the video, not innocent people wrongly accused."
As of Wednesday noon, the video had been watched by more than 117,000 people.
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