JONATHAN, a Korean-American, was a victim of racial prejudice as a child. As he grew up, he searched for a place where people would not prejudge him based on his facial features or racial background. He became a medical doctor in a town in northern Alaska, U.S.A., where his physical appearance was similar to that of many of his patients. He hoped that perhaps there, amid the cold winds of the Arctic Circle, he had finally escaped the even colder winds of prejudice.

Any such hope was shattered when he provided medical assistance to a 25-year-old woman. As the patient came out of a coma, she looked at Jonathan’s face and uttered a taunt with an expletive, revealing her deep-seated disdain for Koreans. For Jonathan, the incident was a painful reminder that all his efforts to move and to blend in could not provide him with an escape from prejudice.

Jonathan’s experience highlights a grim reality. Prejudice is found in every corner of the earth. It appears that wherever there are people, there is prejudice.