Wednesday, March 14, 2007

The Era of Unlimited Service Competition (A Bank for Gays Opens)

Here's a black and white Rhie Won-bok comic which I believe comes from a newspaper. I found it here. It was placed on the website as some kind of proof of Rhie's racism, but it's highly incorrect to present it as such.

The Era of Unlimited Service Competition: A Bank for Gays Opens

1. This is a time when the marketing war among banks to attract new customers is heating up - we've already discussed in this cartoon series the bank in the Netherlands attracting young people in middle and high school.
2. In March 1999 in America the world's first bank for gays, G&L Bank opened its doors.
3. But it's not a real bank, just an online bank, and there are plans to open a real bank in 2002.
4. Steve Dunlop, who revealed himself to be a homo [sic] is the man from Pensacola, Florida, who came up with the idea for the bank.
5. Just as blacks seek black banks and Jews frequent banks managed by Jews, the gays are the same and the market is now ripe for it.
6. Just because G*Ls [gays and lesbians] are homosexual they experience difficulties borrowing money in banks.
7. Even when they handle their finances jointly like a married couple they face many hardships,
8. So this online bank was created so that G*Ls could freely and conveniently use a bank without such difficulties.
9. This idea came out of Dunlop's own difficulties in dealing with banks.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This particular comic is not so racist because of the words per se, but the racial caricatures that Rhie draws are highly indicative of a racist outlook on the world. Particularly in frame 5. Note the bundle of $ under the Jewish man's arm and the blank stare on the face of the black person (I assume it's supposed to be a man).

Joe Mondello said...

Actually I [sic]ed the word 'homo' because it says homo (호모) in the original Korean, and not the Korean word for homosexual (동성애자) which he does use in other places throughout the document. My intention was not to imply that Rhie was homophobic or using the word as a slur; I doubt he is. I assume he uses the English word 'homo' simply to demonstrate his erudition. Perhaps some of his readers would be impressed by his familiarity witht this English slang term. In fact I think from context it's clear that there is nothing homophobic about the cartoon. In fact I translated it in order to defend Rhie from what I felt were unfair characterizations based on this comic.