The story of a young Indonesian woman who was injured by a club bouncer in South Korea, and the accompanying graphic photo of her injuries, has led to an outpouring of anger by many on social media, especially amongst expats in South Korea who believe, like the victim, that the attack was racially motivated.
The incident took place around Friday at midnight at a club in Busan and left the victim, 21-year-old Jessica Setia, who had been living and studying in South Korea for two years, with severe wounds to her lips and chin as a result of the bouncer’s attack.
In a Facebook post, one of the people accompanying Jessica that night, Joshua Irwin, detailed his version of the incident. His original post appears to have been taken down but it was reposted unedited by the Koreanized Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/Koreanized/posts/1263063760470648
Here is the full text of the post:
“Last night a woman was beaten up in Groove, Seomyeon, Busan.
Myself, Gabrielle, and some of her Indonesian friends went to groove in Seomyeon at about 23:00. When we got to the front to get our IDs checked Gabrielle was talking to me and the bouncer got irritated by this and threw her ID card on the floor. As she was picking it up she asked him in Korean if he knew that he was being rude, and he then indicated to her to his friend and said 씨발 (this is incredibly rude in Korean). She heard him and incredulously repeated what he said and then he shouted at her to get out (in Korean) and started man handling her. He was pushing Gabrielle then we both nearly fell down the stairs. We all started shouting at him and then one of her friends got involved and pushed him away because he was pushing Gabrielle. This (retracted) then proceeded to punch this poor woman in the mouth several times before I could get in between them and get her away from him. She was bleeding profusely almost instantaneously.
His punches tore up her lip immediately and blood began gushing everywhere, most of her friends (and me) were covered in her blood. We looked like we had been attacked because there were blood stains all over our clothes. We eventually got her downstairs and called the police on my phone and they thankfully arrived quickly.
The poor girl was shrieking from the injustice and the pain. The policemen went upstairs and took the man into custody but most of the people there are not hopeful that she will get justice because
- She is a foreigner and he is Korean.
- There was no CCTV footage.
- The only real witnesses (myself and a few others) are foreigners and were with the victim so we are biased. For some reason none of the other Koreans in the line were asked to be witnesses… (side eye)
The thing that makes me so angry is that while the police were taking my statement his friend was laughing. He and his friend showed no remorse. He didn’t even have the decency to beg for forgiveness.
The policemen were very prompt and they were very understanding and tried their best to help settle the situation. Kudos to them.
There were some kind Korean people who saw the girl sitting in the road bleeding and someone bought some wet wipes and water and another one kept calling the police to ensure they arrived.
Gabrielle and I went to two different hospitals trying to find her friend and her friend needs stitches on her lip to close it up. Last time we saw her she was getting a CT scan to assess for any abnormalities.
Now, how could something like this happen with such a small provocation. I believe that this all began because of this fucking outdated, misogynistic and pathetic belief that men are superior to women. This idea is endemic in many societies (especially in Korea). This altercation happened because within this way of thinking, if woman doesn’t follow protocols and by doing so disrespects a man then she needs to be checked and punished. All Gabrielle did was not focus on the man as he was checking her card. I have done this so many times and no one ever threw my card on the floor. I am a male and thus I am seen as more of an equal. So I cannot embarrass a man’s ego as much as a woman can.
Furthermore, being a white foreigner is unquestionably more influential than being a foreigner who doesn’t look white or is from another Asian country. I do not mean to say that I think I am better or that white people are better but it is undeniable that we receive subtle benefits because of our race. Gabrielle and her friends are Indonesian and were treated as if they were sub-human. I was in between the two while he was hitting her and I was not hit once. Had it been a Korean woman, or a white woman, then I am sure this would not have escalated as quickly as it had.
The fact that this man felt that he had the right to hurt a woman who disrespected him and the way his friends encouraged this thinking by laughing at this woman’s pain is the reason why [redacted]. I have seen this in South Africa and I have seen this in Korea. I saw a guy in my high school repeatedly slap his girlfriend because she kept asking him difficult questions. This mentality that a woman who resists must be disciplined is so archaic and ridiculous.
We need to teach men everywhere to become better than this…”
~ Joshua Irwin
In an interview, Jessica claimed the bouncer was being racist to her and her friends without reason and that she had only pushed the bouncer after he had pushed her friend Gabrielle to the ground.
In the ensuing fight, the bouncer allegedly punched Jessica in the mouth several times. Her lips required eight stitches at the hospital she was taken to afterward.
Gabrielle said the incident took place because of her nationality.
“I am used to people looking down on Indonesians. I thought that he did not like foreigners so he might have been rude to us especially because we were not white Caucasians,” she told the Korea Herald. “When we got upset and showed it to him, I think it made him angry.”
However, the club gave the Korea Herald a very different version of events, saying that no discrimination had taken place and that Jessica had started the incident by cursing and shaking her fist at the bouncer. The bouncer had only injured her face while defending himself, the club stated.
The Busan Seomyeon Police are currently investigating the case and still taking witness testimony. They said that their investigation had found the left side of the bouncer’s cheek was “swollen”, implying it supported the club’s account that it had been a two-way assault.
According to the Korea Herald, Irwin’s account of the attack on Jessica quickly went viral, with over 1,000 likes, 650 shares and 200 comments as of Sunday afternoon. Many of the comments came from other expats in Korea who said they had suffered from racism.
However, Irwin added an update to his post arguing that the incident should not be used as an excuse for racism or prejudice against Koreans.
“I am not advocating racial hatred towards Korean people. I totally and completely reject many of the comments which have been extremely prejudiced towards Koreans. I fucking hate racism and sexism. That was not my point at all. I honestly like Korea immensely. I love learning Korean and meeting Korean people. I think Korea has exceptional potential as a nation but I do stand by my analysis that misogyny and prejudice played a role in this and just like racism is taught and passed down generationally, so is misogyny.
The reason I wrote this was to bring awareness to racism, and a serious problem that all women worldwide face and that is violence done by men. Instead of dismissing these experiences as being bad apples in a bucket, we should be instead looking at what systemic forces allow these bad apples to emerge. I am talking about systemic problems of prejudice, white privilege and misogyny. Let us start talking more and start educating people all over so that we can change the world instead of allowing things like this to continue to happen.
In the words of my one and true president, Nelson Mandela.
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
–1994, from his autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom”
H/T to Reddit user berhala on r/Indonesia for first informing us about this story
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