A recent news segment on MBC news has created a furor in the expat community. Interviewing anonymous women it claims foreigners at bars are picking up korean women for unprotected sex, leaving them pregnant, or worse, with the Aids virus. Many foreigners feel this is a gross exaggeration and unfair attack on the expat community.

You can watch the news segment with subtitles and 'sensationalist' backing music here 
http://seoulbeats.com/2012/06/mbc-the-vilification-of-foreigners-and-hallyu/ 

A counter campaign was started in the expat community by collecting photos of married mixed race couples and mixed race children. There was even a mixed race couple protest outside MBC studios, who replied by saying they "dont know what all the fuss is about"!
 
First of all, to get or renew a work visa in Korea, we have to undertake HIV and Drug Tests. By the time of writing this I will be going for my THIRD Aids and Drug Test while in Korea. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that a foreigner living and working in Korea is infecting unsuspecting females with the Aids virus. Yet, the misconception still persist that foreigners carry the Aids virus.  

Second, standing outside bars at closing time meeting drunk foreigners is not the best way to meet any potential suitor. Asia is known for 'Sex Tourism' so who is to say that these people aren't visiting sex tourists unfairly smearing the domestic expat community? 

Shouldnt they also be addressing the morality of korean women for being so 'easy' in the first place and not looking for 'sensible' relationships instead of just attacking the western men? Claims have also surfaced about korean men dating westerners just to sleep with them and doing the same disappearing act after.

A while back a popular K-Pop artist went on a lengthy tirade on twitter attacking the black community and "imagining a world without black people" after Whitney Houston died. You can read the entire comment thread here http://www.soompi.com/2012/02/19/jenny-hyuns-offending-tweets-calling-for-eradication-of-the-black-community-spark-controversy/ 
  
However, their status shielded them from any media scrutiny leaving an incensed foreigner community. Imagine tweeting this entire thread in your country. Let alone the outrage, you would be prosecuted. 

Finally, a group of four foreigners have been caught smoking marijuana smearing the entire expat community again. http://www.busanhaps.com/article/foreign-teachers-busted-pot-busan  

The last time this happened in the City of Daejeon the Government introduced nationwide drug testing for all foreign teachers last year.

While I dont follow the Korean media, I dont know what is being said until it is picked up by other foreigners. However, being a visible ethnic minority I have had no problems whatsoever in my entire time in Korea, living and working in Korea, and travelling to many cities and small towns in local buses and trains all over the country. 

I wouldnt know if comments are being made about me except for 'waygook' (foreigner), though I've had no problems of people not sitting next to me, dirty looks, refusing to serve me, rude comments etc, which I have encountered growing up in England. 

I dont think Korea is a racist country, I'm actually surprised to hear of these incidents. There was another hidden camera news report a while back about an American and South Asian both asking for directions. People stopped to answer the American but ignored the South Asian. This has NEVER happened to me in Korea.

People are always very friendly and polite, small kids and sometimes elderly people will want to practice some basic english with you.  I find people are always trying to make sure we are looked after rather than giving us a brush off.

While there are always a few bad apples in every community, just like back home, the media only amplifies this into an exaggerated wider problem, leaving the community at large to defend itself.