"Transracial" Koreans (Patreon)

So this person is using this concept completely wrong but let me give you some historical context for "transracial" and how Korea ACTUALLY fits into this.

"Transracial" became a term for Korean adoptees adopted by white Americans, the subject of many movies in Korea and a couple in the US. It doesn't mean you identify as white or that a white person can identify as Korean. It was the beginning of widespread adoption of children of color by white people (US and Europe), which is much more common now.

Why Korea is because of the American war in Korea. What became South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world. At the time poorer than any poor country you can think of today. Then there were the US-backed dictators. All of this meant Korean parents began to en masse put their kids up for adoption. Mothers walking the street yelling "save my child" is a memory even Korean Gen X'ers might remember. This is also why in some Korean families, your sibling is actually your cousin, or your cousin is actually your sibling, because they were adopted by another family member.

For many political reasons, US parents were given preference for adoption. During the 1988 Olympics in Korea, the country itself apologized for "abandoning their children." This also was a time when many transracial Korean adoptees came to Korea. (This is what "Seoul Searching" on Netflix is about.) Now "transracial" is generally meant to mean placing a child who is of one race or ethnic group with adoptive parents of another race or ethnic group.

For Koreans, it means whiteness is all that they know, yet white society constantly reminds them that they are not white. This struggle, similar to being closeted, can sometimes cause hostile reactions. This is why you'll sometimes see Koreans in alt-right groups. This isn't exclusive just to adoptees. White dads to white stepdads is often a common pattern. There's also internalized colonialism, not to mention the history of Asian fetishizing, which is not a bug but a feature of white supremacy. Asian fetish isn't the cause of every white dad, but it's also not something you can discount.

The fetishizing is really a byproduct of the white sense of ownership of Koreans—the spoils of war. This brings us back to the original post.