asian racism (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Barrow: moving to, communities, race)

[siobhandem]

Hi, I'm Korean American male considering moving to Anchorage. Are Asians viewed as Natives in Alaska? Is there a lot of racism towards Asians? Thanks.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by siobhandem

Hi, I'm Korean American male considering moving to Anchorage. Are Asians viewed as Natives in Alaska? Is there a lot of racism towards Asians? Thanks.

As you are probably already aware, there is a relatively large community of Koreans in Alaska. I'm not familiar with Anchorage, but in Fairbanks there is some discrimination but it is nothing near what it is towards Alaska Natives.

In the larger bush communities such as here in Barrow there is a fairly large percentage of Korean people. They own most of the restaurants and most of the cabs. There are fewer Koreans than Filipinos or Samoans in Barrow, but more than the number of Thai or Mexican people. They get along very well. One of the reasons these various nationalities like the bush communities is because here the dominant culture is not Euro-centric and they actually see very little race discrimination (not that it doesn't exist, but it is pretty equally split amongst all types of people, including Whites). There is no "White preference" here... It's "Inupiat preference" instead!