invisible. In the next sentence, Peter notes, “But if I get into a taxi, right when I opened
my mouth, the taxi ageossi (middle aged man) would ask me, are you Japanese?”
The image of the taxi driver comes up repeatedly in interviews with Korean
Americans, who admit that they have little direct contact with South Koreans except for
inside a taxi. In that transaction, many Korean Americans find that their invisibility gets
challenged as they negotiate the terms of the ride to their destination. Trapped inside the
car without the usual distractions of traffic and conversations from bystanders intruding
into their personal space, many Korean Americans talk about hostile accusations from
cab drivers who ask them why they do not know their own native language or take
advantage of the obvious foreignness of the passengers to increase their fares. Many
interviewees related similar stories about feeling verbally attacked in the back seat of
taxis with little recourse available to them. This type of experience, while common in
interviews, is by no means universal. Many interviewees did say that while they feared
the potential showdown with cab drivers, many times, they were treated with curiosity
and respect. Many cab drivers had a relative who immigrated to the States or had visited
the US at some point and were merely curious or even encouraging of Korean Americans
who returned to South Korea to visit. But the taxi ride was often a direct time in which
Korean Americans felt they had to negotiate their identities and downplay their
foreignness. I remember numerous times when I was traveling with a group of Korean
Americans in a cab of negotiating ahead of time which person would talk to the driver
and the rest of us making sure to be silent or avoiding English while inside the car.
While the taxi ride is one example in which potentially a Korean American’s
foreignness could be “outed,” many Korean Americans talked about the impossibility of
“passing” as a Korean completely. Melissa, a Korean American woman in her early 20s,
Convention