SuChin Pak reveals ‘misogynistic, violent, racist’ experience at MTV News
"I overheard a colleague of mine, while watching me do the news that evening, tell a room full of people that I looked like a 'me sucky sucky love you long time' whore."
In the wake of the violent attacks that left eight women, including six Asian women dead, former MTV News correspondent, SuChin Pak recently opened up about what she describes as a “misogynistic, violent, racist” experience at her former workplace.
“Years ago, when I was a news correspondent at MTV, I overheard a colleague of mine, while watching me do the news that evening, tell a room full of people that I looked like a ‘me sucky sucky love you long time’ whore,” Pak wrote in a lengthy Instagram post on Wednesday. The line is a reference from the 1987 film, Full Metal Jacket set in Vietnam.
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Pak only identified the person who made the remarks as a “white male executive.” She wrote that at the moment, she did not say anything out of fear of being “seen as difficult or too sensitive.”
“I woke up the next day though and it hit me that he said it in a room full of people, mostly women, who somehow now think subconsciously or consciously that this kind of [misogynistic], violent, racist language could be overlooked and dismissed and that worse, that someone like me would just swallow it and shrink into the small space that I was allowed to occupy.”
Pak wrote that she later appealed to MTV executives to have the man “removed,” but that the network attempted to work with her through a mediation process.
“It dragged on for months. I did not do this because I had an agenda or even courage, I just had this sinking feeling in my gut that I had to do this. It’s the kind of sinking feeling though that doesn’t give you strength, or bravery, it was the kind that kept me in bed for a month, crying, scared and uncertain about everything.”
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She later notes that she hired a lawyer to help her navigate the situation which she called a “luxury” that many other oppressed people lack.
Pak, who was born in South Korea immigrated to the United States at the age of 5, said that she has carried the memory of the incident with her. She indicated that she was prompted by the attack to share her story. She left MTV in 2008.
“In this moment, as many of you are shaking with fear, uncertainty and anger, feeling like you don’t have any power to do anything, know that in the midst of feeling small and invisible, you have a deep sense of dignity, of self-worth and holding on to that in the darkest of places is enough.”
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