Why Jeollado is ridiculed, and why it is dangerous.

According to Wikipedia, a minority is a sociological group that does not constitute a politically dominant voting majority of the total population of a given society. A sociological minority is not necessarily a numerical minority — it may include any group that is subnormal with respect to a dominant group in terms of social status, education, employment, wealth and political power.

In other words, a minority is a group that opposes those in power. It does not matter if they are large or small in numbers. It matters that they do not exercise much political power.

Add caption

Politically, the region of Jeollado is a minority. From the 70's and on, the major power source of South Korea hails from Kyungsangdo, as the chart suggests.

For those who cannot read Korean, the chart shows that the majority of the Korean "elites," executives of the top 100 companies, judges, politicians, professors of a certain level, doctors of big university hospitals, etc., hail from the region of Kyungsangdo.

For most of the recent Korean history, Jeollado was neglected in its industrialization. With the added fact that much of Jeollado's economy was based on farming due to its plentiful resources, it became an antithesis, and an enemy of, the new industrialized Korea. And since the 60's and onwards, the Jeolla diaspora began. From an area that boasted 4 million people, Jeolla namdo steadily declined into an area with the population of 2 million in the year 2000. Many distressed people of Jeolla moved into Seoul, and formed communities in Kwan-ak and Eun-pyeong districts. The same was true of Choongchungdo and Gangwondo, but the people from Jeolla, who boasted superiority in numbers against those two minorities, formed their own "Jeolla resident" groups. This meant that they actually formed a group that can be posed against the establishment.

Lastly, from the 80's and onwards, two things occur that led to the consolidation of Jeollado as the political minority. The first is the Gwangju Democratization Movement and the second is the 3 party merger by Kim Young Sam. The former allowed the New Military Government of Chun Doo Hwan to paint the people of Jeollado red. The latter created a big union that excluded Jeolla.

This meant that Jeollado, as a culture, becomes something foreign to the Koreans. It leads to the stereotype of Jeollado as "backstabbing, two-faced, forming their own groups, knowing only money, worships Kim Dae Jung." Sound familiar? This kind of prejudice can be applied by any xenophobic group to the minorities that they want to scapegoat. This fits the traditional stereotype against the Jews in Europe, and the same to the Asian Americans in the USA, the Turks in Germany, the Indians in the UK, the Algerians in France, and other minorities of the world. The Koreans say the same against Japanese. Ironically, the Japanese say the same against the Zainichi, the Koreans living in Japan.

These stereotypes lead into the cultural archetype of the Jeolla mafia and gangsters we see in Korean movies. They become dangerous and deceiving people. Is this the truth? Of course not.

Because of this, the Jeolla-bashing is more dangerous than anything, even straight up attacks against the Jeolla. Why? because when logic can be applied, those attacks can be defended. However, when there is a general nonchalance added to the ridiculing the people of Jeolla, it is hard to fight against it, because it precipitates the minds of the masses that logic cannot break.

The ridiculing is similar to the mockery of the "losers" and "geeks" at school. No one really makes fun of the "cool kids," because after all, they are at the top of the typical high school hierarchy, and while people may make fun of them, if given the chance to be close with them, most kids would gladly take it. However, many secretly take comfort in the fact that they are not the "losers." It is the same for the Jeolla bashing. And because of this ridiculing, the absurd power structure between the "cool" group and the "loser" group is solidified, and the same may happen for Jeollado, if this ridiculing continues. Anything not deemed "normal" in a society is ridiculed. Gays, (less to a certain extent as many people embrace it now), racial minorities, economic minorities, and cultural minorities. They may get some looks of pity, but no one embraces them. They are not "normal."