you know, I've been living in Seoul, South Korea, for 12 years, and I've been living in Korea altogether for about 14 years. I've seen some crazy stuff since I've been here. I've had the honor of going to a lot of weddings in this country. I've traveled around to so many different amazing places, and I've tasted a lot of amazing food with a lot of amazing people. And because I've had so many positive experiences, so many wonderful experiences here in Korea, I have nothing but positive things to say about this country. All of you know how I feel about Korea; this is my home. However, these days, I feel like my country, my home—I don't want to say my country, but my home—is under attack, and that's because of this person named Johnny Somali. Let's talk about him, and let's talk about how he's dangerous for Korea, but also for foreigners living here. Honestly, I never knew anything about Johnny

Somali until you know a week ago when a few of my YouTube subscribers left comments saying how I should be careful because Johnny Somali is running rampant in this country. One of my subscribers even said for me to be careful because I look like Johnny Somali. So, I had to do a quick Google search to find out who this guy is, who is Johnny Somali, why is he causing like all of this uproar, and why are people comparing Johnny Somali to me. So, it did not take me long to find some of the worst atrocities that I've ever seen committed in Korea by foreigners who are visiting this country. He should be kicked out of Korea as soon as possible. Like, I was watching some of his videos, and he's doing some very dumb things. Like, I can't fathom why a person would actually do these things in a foreign country, but also why would you even think about doing these things in general. It doesn't make any kind of sense. And so, there's one video of Johnny Somali, he's sitting in

a convenience store, and he's eating ramyeon or he's eating some kind of food, and he's being very disrespectful to the older woman who's working at the convenience store. Like, what kind of person would think about doing something like this, and how does he have so many followers, how does he have so many subscribers, and so many views? I mean, that's also very mind-boggling. One of the funny things is that Johnny Somali would be considered black American, or even some people would say he's African-American. So, all of his derelict behavior, it kind of brushes off on the African-Americans, or black Americans, or even black people, Africans, however you want to call yourself here in Korea. Okay, okay, okay, that can be a little far-fetched. Maybe just because Johnny Somali is acting like a child, he's acting like he's crazy, he has no sense. It doesn't mean that you

know because of the color of his skin. Everyone is going to associate his behavior with other, like not light-skinned, like-skinned people. And even though I'm not happy with Johnny Somali and his antics here in my beloved Korea, this does afford me the opportunity to talk about some different cultural skills that people should have when they're traveling or visiting another country. I'm not sure if I've talked about this in another video or not, but I'm very disturbed with how a lot of YouTubers go around to different countries and they act a fool. And this can have terrible, dire consequences on all foreigners who visit or travel around to different countries. But more specifically, I want to talk about African-Americans and the black community. Why Johnny Somali's antics, why his derelict behavior can bode even worse for us. I think I have a bit of self-awareness, I think, and I think I'm pretty good at reading the room, like looking at my

surroundings and understand how people perceive me or perceive like different situations when I hear about Johnny Somali coming to uh Korea and he's you know he's defaming everything that he does and he's just making he's Americans look bad. He's making foreigners look bad in the eyes of Korean Koreans, but he's also making uh you know African descent people uh look bad as well. And maybe a lot of you will say oh Francois you know we know the difference between you know each individual but I mean seriously sometimes people don't know the difference and one person can can create a stereotype or add to the stereotype of an entire group of people. Like there's one instance that really comes to mind and it just makes me stop and think and just recall like like my my feelings like I had very strong feelings about this incident and a lot of my friends who were with me they didn't really seem to mind but for me because I think I have some kind of cultural awareness or

just awareness in general. It just stuck out, and that was when I was in Busan, and it was about, I don't know, six or seven years ago. So, down in Busan, I went to McDonald's with a couple of my friends, a few of my friends, and inside there was just, there was a lot of people. There were like tons of people because it was the 4th of July weekend. So, many of you know that here in Korea, there are a lot of US military personnel. So, on that day, on the holiday, all of the US military personnel, they were out, and they were just partying and having fun in McDonald's. There were tons of people, and the grand vast majority of those people were African Americans. And usually, I would be like very happy and enthusiastic about seeing, you know, people who look like me, you know, self-identity, self-identification theory, something like that. You know, whenever you see people who look like you, you tend to gravitate toward them or, you know, feel more

accepted uh around them, but in this case, it was the complete opposite. So, let me paint the scene for you. Behind the counter, there are Korean workers, and there were Korean people who are buying uh food. There were just like maybe a few Koreans in there, maybe five or six, but then there were like maybe uh, you know, 10 or 12 African Americans. And then more Koreans start to come in. Some of the African Americans start to leave. There remain like five, four or five African Americans. I remember there were like three girls and two guys, and the girls were so loud. They were like super, super loud, and they were just using like the n-word like constantly, like NW this, n-word that. And I'm a big proponent of never using this word. It's not cool. It's not fun to use this word uh in music or just even as a term of endearment. I think this word should be eradicated from anyone's

vocabulary. The African-American group, they were like screaming and yelling or speaking so loud, using the N word in word, this in word, that in word, this N word, that. And Koreans were just looking at them, just not saying anything, just looking at them. And when the Koreans were looking at them with like eyes of like bewilderment and just like, you know, exasperation, like what is going on, it just, it made me feel, it made me feel bad because I'm also African American and I can never escape like my people. I can't escape, you know, coming for where I come from or, you know, being who I am. So, it just, it made me feel bad to see the Koreans witnessing how, you know, we as a people were acting on that particular night. Yeah, so I mean, think about that. If you see a bunch of African Americans or people of any, you know, ethnic background, Chinese or Koreans or, you know, Japanese or Europeans, anyone, if

you see them just acting a fool and like running a muck. Like, what would you think? Would you think these people are cool, approachable, nice, uh, you know, amicable, um, or is it amiable? One of those. I always get those two words confused. But would you think that these people, uh, are well-behaved individuals and deserve to be in your country, or would you try to steer clear of them, you know, and make sure that you have nothing to do with them? Oh hi, good to see you. That's the, uh, best part of filming a YouTube video on campus, is like all of your students are looking at you like, Yo, what is he doing? Yeah, so this whole situation with Johnny Somalia has me thinking about all of these things. Like, first of all, you know, he's American here, and he's a guest in this country. He's also considered, you know, black American. So, you know, his actions, what kind of repercussions are they going to have on other African-Americans or people of African descent here in this country?

I mean, of course, I'm not Jenny Somalia, and a lot of other African-Americans or people of African descent living and working in Korea have no connection to him, no relation to him at all. But already, commenters are telling me to be careful because I look like Johnny Somalia, or maybe I resemble him, or he resembles me. But anyways, um, you know, connections are already starting to be made. So, I think Johnny Somali's situation can actually teach us a lot about there a big dog over there. His situation can teach us a lot about cultural awareness and just having decent common courtesy and etiquette. I mean, that goes a long way, common courtesy and etiquette. Yo dog, have some common courtesy and etiquette. I'm filming yo. This guy is not happy. Oh, I pointed the camera at him, and he walked away. Yeah, so like also in a couple of Johnny Somali's videos, he's starting to be like attacked and beaten up by Koreans. And I don't condone violence of any sort unless it's

in self-defense. I can kind of understand. I can empathize a lot with the Koreans who are attacking him because this guy is crazy. He's doing a lot of terrible things here in Korea. He's causing not only harm for Koreans, but he's also causing harm for foreigners as well, and he's causing harm for himself and his friend who's going around filming with him. My grandma always taught me when I was growing up, Francois, treat others the way you want to be treated, and If you ever go anywhere, always be respectful. You should be more respectful of places when... well, hi, hello, hello, hello, hi. Oh, I can't put you on camera. You're children. Uh, bye-bye. See you. Oh, thank you. See you. I-I didn't really hear what he said, but yeah, there was two little children. They wanted to be on the camera, and I was like, Nah, you're children. Wait, wait, did they say I'm handsome? If so, then yeah, maybe I should

put them on camera. Yeah, but anyways, um, grandma always taught me, you know, be respectful wherever you go. Actually, you should be more respectful in a place that you're visiting than you should be at home. And that's not saying that you should treat your home like [ __ ] or you should like, you know, have degenerate behavior, uh, you know, at your home. But if you're going to a different place, you should show more decorum and more like, uh, congeniality maybe. Uh, you should show more, more of your good side, more of your positive side than you should your negative side because you never know how your image, the image that you portray will be perceived by people who are looking at you. And then they can in turn take that image that they have of you and generalize it to other people who look like you. Yo, I always like this traffic scene when I'm going home. There's nothing like fun or special about it. It just looks so cool. Hey guys, but let me know what you think should happen to

Johnny Somali, Johnny Somalia, however you pronounce his name. I'm tired of saying his name. I don't want to promote him or his content. But yeah, he's coming to Korea. He's here, and he's just doing so many foul things. Like, do you think he should be sent back to the United States, or do you think he should actually serve some jail time here in Korea? Because I've heard that he's also committed some assault and battery crimes. Yeah, that's very dangerous for him. It's dangerous for foreigners, and it's also dangerous for Koreans because you're coming to another country and you're harming people who consider you as a visitor here. You came to this country as a visitor. This is not your home. Home. I've lived in Korea for 14 years. I consider this place my home, but I am not Korean. I participate in Korean society as much as I can with the skills and abilities

that I have, but I am not Korean. I cannot come to this country. I cannot wake up every day in this country. I can't just spit anywhere I want. I can't, you know, castigate people anytime I want. I can't say negative things about the government and how these policies or these things right here aren't making Korea a better place because I'm not Korea or I'm not Korean. Korea is evolving and developing at its own pace based on the amount of resources and skills and people and, you know, all those things that it has. You know, it's doing the best that it can with what it has, but I'm definitely not going to be in this country, and I'm not going to attack anyone. I'm not going to harm someone. I'm not going to travel thousands of miles from my home country just to do some stupid dumb stuff for clicks and views. That doesn't make any kind of sense to me, and just

like thinking about why a person would want to do that and Johnny's friend. Why would you want to be associated with a person who does that, who puts you in a bad situation, who puts you in a bad light? The older I get, the more I realize that it's imperative for me to protect my brand, absolutely essential for me to protect my brand. François, Mark, François Harris, François, whatever you may have it, it's absolutely essential that I do all that I can to protect my image. Like, I'm not going to subjugate myself to any kind of pitiful treatment of people or pitiful treatment of myself just for some clicks and views because people watch a video here one day, they forget about it, and they're on to the next video the next day. So, I'm definitely not going to harm anyone just so I can have my 15 seconds or what is it, 30 seconds of fame or something like that because I'm

already famous snap the train is here. I can't finish the Vlog. I got to go home and finish it. Oh my goodness, the sun goes down so early in the fall here in Korea. Sheesh, it was just like super sunny, now all of a sudden it's like all dark. So, in conclusion, I guess I just want to say like for Koreans, Johnny Somali or Johnny Somalia, whatever his name is, he does not represent people of African descent, all people of African descent. And also for African-Americans or people of African descent, like please be mindful of your environment and how you conduct yourself in foreign countries. Like you should be mindful of how you conduct yourself in your home country, but people are always looking at us with the advent of the internet and like how communication and how these videos go viral and people can see anything all the time. And once something is on the internet, it's never erased. Like you never know who's going to watch your video. You never know who's going to

see you all in all. I love all people. I want all people to progress. I want all people to be happy. I want all people to have, you know, food on their table. I want all people to be happy. I want all people to, uh, treat each other with respect. So, it's just really unfortunate that this Johnny guy is an [ __ ] and he's an [ __ ] in my country, in my Korea. Like, n n n n n, I'm, I represent Korea. Like, you can't come to this country and treat and treat Koreans terribly and not have me say something about it, man. I love this country. Korea's done a lot for me, and I'll never, like, turn my back on Korea for some clicks and views. Like, who cares about that? Like, seriously, why would you come anyways? Anyways, I'm, I'm rambling. Thanks a lot for watching this video. It was short, I know. It's kind of like all over the place. I meant to have, like, a more ordered video, but I'll do

it next time. I'll do it next time. It'll be okay.  
Anyways, thanks a lot for watching. Love you all. Take care. See you in the next one. Peace. Oh, oh.  
Oh, oh. Stay hydrated. Make sure you stay hydrated. Peace. There we go.

American Expat Discusses Johnny Somali: The Most Hated Man in South Korea.

What's up, folks!? My name is Francois Harris, an adventurer based in Seoul, South Korea. I've traveled to 26 countries, and now that borders have opened up again, I will be traveling more. However, most of my content focuses on life in South Korea. Sit tight and enjoy the ride as we explore some of the most amazing places in South Korea and the world!


