Cleopatra

As a poc, I sigh and turn off that bit of my brain oftentimes when reading manhwas unless it's a blatant call out. Lets say, a blatant racism for me would be not only all of the above, but the poc in the manhwa are appropriating a certain culture in terms of clothes and beliefs and way they live (like desi or ottomans with the clothes and culture, and egyptians/north africans/arab with the desert and allat). When all that is added to the slurs and stereotypes it becomes a lot more obvious and hard to ignore, and at that point it's your own choice to continue reading abd being disgusted or just ignore that again.

what makes this all the sadder is the person writing such things isn't even white, and asians know what it's like to be discriminated against for your ethnicity, so why do it against another race? But having those thoughts and discussing them is a hit or miss on this site because, as you said, hardly anyone likes to thing too deeply about their horny stories they read for fun.

Well the real answer is that if you are Korean living in S. Korea you aren't "Asian". You are just part of the majority and are a lot more ignorant to things like racism, a little similar (but not the same as) to how whiteness operates in Northern American and European countries.

S. Koreans are also quite right wing in this regard (they tend to have a pretty negative view of communism North Korea and all, and they have their very own breed of effed up neoliberalism due to the 90s financial crisis), so matters like racism or discrimination or exoticism aren't really as expanded conversations as probably in the US where "race" is kind of a foundational aspect of the culture (sorry if I am assuming you are american if you're not!). I live in northern Europe and most of my Asian friends are first gen migrants and they all say they saw themselves as Asian for the first time when they moved to Europe. I mean Asians discriminate amongst themselves as well and have complex beef with each other, you know? A S. Korean for example might have a very negative view of Japan due to the colonial history between them or they may be very critical of Chinese migrants moving to Korea in a discriminatory sense. "Asianness" is a lot more polymorphous as a concept than we simplify it as in the western world. I mean Middle Easterners are also Asian but we do not think of them as such for example, with most people in the west not referring to that region as "West Asia". They are Middle East in comparison to Europe (big oof).

So it's all a matter of perspective.

Honestly for me even appropriation I find interesting, and idk if I'd call none of this appropriative, they just kind'a did a mishmash of different ethnicities, regions and races lol. But it's also more honest, an American or idk British novella about magical POC people would try to tread the line more and obscure the weird racist parts, which makes the deep dive and conversations around "why x trope is seen as interesting here" more difficult. It's just interesting to see cultural perceptions be revealed honestly in the middle of all the horny lol

First of all I love you and how well articulated you are. Forgive me for not being able to reciprocate as I just got up from bed.
I also forgot what manhwa this chain was even under and it took me a minute to remember, that says something about the variety of manhwas and stories here that does this very thing about other races.

I am not American, heavens forbid. I'd hate to be one and I never wish it. I am northern african, and while living where I am definitely makes me the majority and it's not like I wake up and go about my day being discriminated against, I like to believe people nowadays engage more often on the internet and be exposed to so many varied opinions and cultures that it's easy and quite common to know what others think of you as a collective, and all the prejudices that come with it. It's enough to make me and anyone think deeply before attempting to travel anywhere even for fun and vacation. I have to worry about how I'll dress, my skin color, my accent, my religion, and how I'll be viewed and treated based on it all. I assume this is not a worry the westerners have when they travel which makes them have a huge privilege.

I'd understand being a bit unaware to the gravity of this if you were a community that's been closed and surrounded by what the government wishes you to see and interact with, e.g. north korea and china (as china has its own social media and any other social media that's globally used is unavailable there unless you use vpn and bypass many restrictions). They cater what their public will consume and see, so it'll definitely be hard for them to view themselves as "Asian" the way the global views them unless they get out from there. Oh well.

I agree about the mashing of ethnicities and cultures the authors and artist tend to do. Often times it's not really that bothersome, you just stop wondering if mashing ethnicities is intentional ignorance or genuine ignorance, and if it's the latter then does that count as racism that you wouldn't even give the courtesy to research the culture you're trying to adopt? Considering how they heavily search up for places like US and UK when they decide to set their stories there and that's a lot of manhwas and novels. Even actual place names and laws are researched. It's quite ironic.