![\"\"](\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/kimHS_kooYH.jpg\")
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When I saw this photograph of the Atlanta Falcons\u2019 placekicker Koo Younghoe posing up with new Braves\u2019 scrap-bin pickup Kim Ha-Seong where they did\/were coerced into a jersey swap, my first reaction was that of a wince.<\/span><\/p>\n I understand what was going on, and I imagine both Koo and Kim were smart enough to just go with it for the sake of whitey and the rest of America; and as the title of this post says, I think most Koreans would probably get that the intentions of this obviously orchestrated connection were good, it still gives off a sense of ignorant microaggression, in my personal opinion.<\/span><\/p>\n It’s like there\u2019s absolutely no chance that Koo Younghoe was planned in advance to happen to be at ScumTrust<\/span> Truist Park on this particular day, even if the NFL season was right on the precipice of beginning.\u00a0 If the Braves really wanted to tie into the start of the Falcons\u2019 season, undoubtedly they would\u2019ve gone after Michael Penix or any of their more popular skill position players, and not the placekicker, no matter how talented and generally likeable that Koo actually is.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The choice to invite Koo to the ballpark stinks of white people exhibitionism, like when white people are trying to integrate a black person, gay person, or any other individual who classifies as not-straight white people, they go out of their way to dig out any other member of said demographic to help introduce them into the collective.\u00a0 And I\u2019m going to give benefit of the doubt that both Koo and Kim were aware of what was going on, but like I said, they\u2019re probably smart enough to just go with it, as not to jeopardize their own careers by calling out bullshit when they see it.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019d wager that Koo and Kim were amenable to each other during this forced interaction, and maybe they did become quick acquaintances from the connection.\u00a0 Koo probably reinforced the likely things the white people on the Braves told Kim about life in Atlanta, about how Koreans are plentiful here, mostly the students around Georgia Tech, as well as Gwinnett County as a whole, and probably some recommendations on where to get some decent Korean food should Kim be jonesing for the flavors of the motherland.<\/span><\/p>\n But the thing is, Kim was born and raised in Korea, played ball in the KBO, and came to America barely five years ago.\u00a0 Koo was born in Korea, but immigrated to America when he was 12; he went to high school, college and embarked on his NFL career all in America, and in spite of his origin, man has had plenty of time to more or less become a true American in terms of personality and quality of life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n They really couldn\u2019t be more different beyond their nationality of origin and the fact that they\u2019re both professional athletes.\u00a0 But that seemed to be good enough for the Braves to go out and invite Koo over to the ballpark to meet up with Kim, because, they\u2019re both Korean, they probably already know each other, and their grandfathers probably had to have served together in the Korean War or some other bullshit assumption.<\/span><\/p>\n If the Braves were actually smart, they\u2019d basically have just pointed Kim Ha-Seong straight to Jurickson Profar, since they were already familiar with each other, having been teammates on the Padres.\u00a0 And they were tight enough to where they referred to themselves as Rush Hour<\/a>, even as horribly racist as that name would be for a Korean and a black-skinned Venezuelan to compare themselves to Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, it\u2019s the kind of unity that only comes from actual friendships.<\/span><\/p>\n I mean, maybe they did, and they\u2019d already reunited, but they still wanted to introduce Kim to another Korean Atlanta professional athlete, just to show him that more of you chinks are here playing professional sports here after all.<\/span><\/p>\n Either way, as well-intentioned as the whole thing was, I\u2019mma just go ahead and declare the thing, racist.\u00a0 Not necessarily a malicious racist, but still racist all the same.<\/span><\/p>\n They wouldn\u2019t do this with a new Dominican pickup, or a black pickup.\u00a0 But seeing as how Kim is the first Korean Braves player since Jung Bong, they may as well be back to square one with interacting with Korean culture.\u00a0 I definitely hope Kim stays, because I\u2019ve been following his journey since he posted out of the KBO and made his way to MLB where he was absolutely excellent in his first few years with the Padres, and I genuinely feel the Braves got an absolute steal of a gem in their typical modus operandi of picking through other teams\u2019 scraps, and I think both the Padres and the Rays gave up on him too preemptively, mostly on account of typical Korean disrespect, but I\u2019m hoping he finds success in Atlanta and the Braves can actually have a Korean player that hangs around for more than a split second.<\/span><\/p>\n Hopefully, microaggressions like forcing Koreans to interact don\u2019t shy his opinion too much, and he forces Braves Country to realize who the fuck he is, and is a part of the hopeful 2026 re-do of this cesspool of a 2025 season.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I saw this photograph of the Atlanta Falcons\u2019 placekicker Koo Younghoe posing up with new Braves\u2019 scrap-bin pickup Kim Ha-Seong where they did\/were coerced into a jersey swap, my first reaction was that of a wince. I understand what was going on, and I imagine both Koo and Kim were smart enough to just … Continue reading Good intentions, still kind of racist<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[196,62,66,103,83,143,89,58,146,190],"class_list":["post-50839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-barves","tag-baseball","tag-braves","tag-motherland","tag-observations","tag-ohatlanta","tag-racism","tag-sports","tag-triggered","tag-white-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50841,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50839\/revisions\/50841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}