“Squid Game” Filipino Actor Christian Lagahit Recalls The Time A Korean Lady Hatefully Threw Cabbage At Him
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Squid Game Filipino actor Christian Lagahit, also known as Player 276, recently sat down for an interview with Asian Boss. He opened up about the discrimination he faced as a foreigner in Korea, including a particularly horrifying incident that occurred on a bus.
Calling the form of discrimination he experiences in Korea as “stereotyping,” Christian Lagahit shared the most racist incident that happened to him. A few years ago, he hopped on a small village bus filled with people.
The most memorable one was when I was inside the village bus. It was the last trip, and I was sitting at the back because it was very small. It can only accommodate a few people to sit, so other people were already standing in the bus.
— Christian Lagahit
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He noticed a lady in her 50s staring at him, but he didn’t pay her any mind at first. A few minutes later, however, a cabbage suddenly hit his face.
There was this woman who was just staring at me. At first I wasn’t paying attention because I thought she was maybe looking at the boys, because there were boys in front of me. I thought that maybe she was just looking at the students. A few minutes passed by, and I was surprised when something hit my face. She threw a cabbage at my face—straight at my face.
— Christian Lagahit
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The impact threw his glasses off his face. When he finally found them on the ground, they were already broken. He had no choice but to wear them—broken and all—to aid his blurry vision.
I was wearing eyeglasses at that time, and the first thing that I looked for was my eyeglasses because I couldn’t see. So I looked for my eyeglasses, and when I picked my eyeglasses up, they were already broken. I kind of used the broken eyeglasses to see because I’m farsighted.
— Christian Lagahit
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In confusion, he asked the lady why she threw a cabbage at him. The most heartbreaking part was that no one stood up for him even if he was surrounded by people. They all ignored his plight.
Then I asked, ‘I’m sorry, what’s happening here? Why did you throw this vegetable at me?‘ The hardest part was that no one was paying attention to me. There were a lot of people inside the bus. It was filled, but no one was there to at least help me.
— Christian Lagahit
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The lady who threw the vegetable at him kept silent. It was another woman who explained that she wanted him to leave the bus because she believed only Koreans had the right to ride on it. When he pointed out that there were no foreigner buses and he did not know how to hail a taxi, the woman simply reiterated that he should step out.
According to the other lady, ‘She wants you to step out of the bus.’ Because I’m not Korean, and that bus was intended for Koreans—but there’s no such thing as a foreigner bus here in Korea. She said, ‘You just have to go out.‘
— Christian Lagahit
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The incident made him feel like crying on the inside. For him, the worst part wasn’t even the cabbage being thrown at his face but the people who made the conscious decision to pretend to not notice the injustice that was happening.
And I was crying inside. For me, there was nothing I could do anymore. I couldn’t complain, but what I didn’t understand was there were other people inside that small bus. I just felt so bad that no one was ready to help [me.]
— Christian Lagahit
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The racist lady didn’t just attack him physically but also verbally. Before she exited the bus, she screamed that all foreigners in Korea are “bad.”
Even when she was about to leave the bus, she was still screaming, ‘All foreigners here in Korea are bad people!‘ I remember those lines from her.
— Christian Lagahit
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The racist incident Christian Lagahit experienced is heartbreaking and tragic. It’s infuriating that people all over the world continue to be subjected to hate attacks.
Hear more from Squid Game actor Christian Lagahit in the full interview below.
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