Diversity Statement - I am KoreanMy first interaction with the cruelty of the "real" world was in the fourth grade, in a small suburban town in South Carolina. "You are a monster Chinese! Come forward, use your karate against me!" the boys shouted mockingly, then began speaking nonsense as if it meant something. Pshaw. I was, am and always will be proudly Korean. When I interact with new people, they spend their time guessing about my heritage. Chinese and Japanese are always the first nationalities to guess. Others who are familiar with people of my ancestry understand more quickly. And then there are those who automatically assume. A very small number of people get it right on the first try. We live in a country that instills in us ideas of freedom and equality. Wars have been fought, violence has been used, and many have suffered so that this country could live up to its ideals. Could such a large country make false promises and hopes? Perhaps because, after all, the United States is run by human beings, and that means mistakes will be made. But shouldn't the United States have learned its lesson by now and not repeatedly made the same mistakes? In 1997, Korean-American store owners filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Atlanta over riots at their businesses. The police witnessed the destruction and did nothing. The city's attorney argued that federal civil rights statutes were written solely for the protection of African Americans, not other minorities, including Korean Americans. Atlanta's position in this case was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, but many are horrified that a city so involved in civil rights could have such an offensive view against our "certain unalienable rights ". Their view was not only discrimination against Korean-Americans, but also against descendants of other minority groups who reside, visit or work in Atlanta. Koreans, as well as other minorities in Atlanta, may face fears of not being protected by the city's laws due to prejudice. The signs of prejudice are everywhere.