Chapter 13: My Dad's Journey

My dad’s immigration story has been told to me throughout my life and over the years I have been able to appreciate his travels even more. My dad, Eric John Benson was adopted from Korea when he was five years old. He knows that he is not full Korean and does not know what the other half of his heritage is. He was adopted by a Caucasian, Scandinavian, Texan family and his first memory was running away from the flight attendants with his “brother” on the plane coming over to the United States. Being a Korean adoptee in Texas was not the easiest life for my dad. Although he does not know much of his family history, he has a lot of memories of coming to and growing up in the United States. Newman explains migration to be, “moving to another place where prospects for a comfortable life are brighter “(452). Since my dad and my uncle were young to understand they did not realize the impact of migrating to the United States would have on their lives. They would be provided with opportunities that they would not have had in the orphanage in Korea.

Korean Orphans in the 1960's

My grandpa was working with the military in 1966 as a doctor. He heard a rumor from one of his colleagues that there were Korean children that needed homes. They traveled to Korea to see if they could make additions to their family. When they got there they discovered that there were two boys that needed a home. My dad and my uncle were two energetic little boys that were just waiting for someone to adopt them. My dad said, “So they came to the orphanage and found my brother Mark and I. They visited us for a day and decided they wanted us.” My grandparents decided to adopt them and go through all the paperwork to adopt them. It took two years to adopt them into their family and get them to the United States.

This video shows the beginning of Korean adoptions and how they started:

When my grandparents adopted my father they replaced his given Korean name with Eric John Benson. They chose a Scandinavian sounding name to counter balance the Asian background. They wanted to give my dad a chance to not be profiled when they read the name off of a piece of paper. My dad said, “It gave them the view that I was white before coming to the classroom.” By giving him a white sounding name they could postpone the predisposed opinion that they had of the Asian stereotype. Newman states that, “even though laws in most countries ban discrimination against immigrants, anti-foreigner resentment and prejudice are global phenomena” (454). My grandparents were trying to combat that stereotype because he was one of the few Asian children in the Texan community. My dad said that it did not help much though, “I don’t think it helped much because I still looked Asian.” Even so they tried to make him as White as possible, taking away his Asian heritage.

My dad was never linked back to his Korean heritage while being a part of a Scandinavian household. He was brought up as Caucasian and in that society instead of learning about his ethnic background. My dad expressed his feelings about being Asian, “Growing up I was embarrassed being Korean. There weren’t a lot of Asians back in Texas.” He was not exposed to anything that had to do with the Asian culture. When he was growing up there was not a lot of as much integration of races today. He was surrounded by predominantly “White” culture. He did not know where he came from and did not thrive to start learning about that part of his background. Although he felt out of place in his community he did not look for a solution. The resources for that exploration may not have been provided in a predominantly white community as well, making it nearly impossible to learn.

Needless to say my dad is a dork.

Although I am just a quarter Korean I am extremely proud of my heritage. If my dad had not been adopted and came to the United States from Korea I would not be in exist let alone be American. Even though parts of his culture were lost in his immigrating to the United States he has been able to recover some of it as he has gotten older. He tries to incorporate parts of his culture by encouraging his children to take part in things such as Korean dancing and eating traditional foods.   Though the Asian culture has been reduced through assimilation in the United States it still exists in small amounts. My dad’s history is not uncommon but it is unique to my family and how he came to become an American citizen. It makes my family different from others and the pride we have for our heritage is immense because of everything he has gone through to discover where his roots are as an Asian American.