Prologue: A Very Old Habit

Part 1: Women's Clothing and Pockets - How Much Discrimination Comes from Ignorance

All the Melanies of the world
Birdwatcher in Central Park
Women's clothing and pockets
Wanton font
Caster Semenya's identity
code switch
Imperfect Victim
Mary Ford's disqualification

Part 2: Dear Mr. Schultz - Humanity's Old Ideas and the Small Voices That Oppose Them

Men with common sense
Dear Mr. Schultz
The Summer Camp That Changed the World
Pastor King with an unfamiliar appearance
mentality
It's okay if it's not okay
Actress in the trunk
A true expert

“How much discrimination comes from ignorance?
From the first black character in Peanuts to pockets on women's clothes
Stories that are like an axe that changed humanity's old thinking.

Park Sang-hyun, publisher of "Otter Letter," who has unearthed little-known news in Korea with a living curiosity and shared it with the public by adding background information and context, tells a story that will change discrimination and outdated perceptions within us.

Dear Mr. Schultz is a book about people who have overcome old prejudices.
The author demonstrates how much of the discrimination and exclusion prevalent in human society stems from ignorance, through a variety of topics including educational opportunities, race, diversity, and mental health discourse.
It begins with seemingly trivial issues like why women's pants have no pockets or have pockets that are much smaller than those on men's clothing (and why people assume that's a female consumer choice), and goes on to uncover and dissect the biases that are naturally ingrained in us, all the way to the social pressures and customs that deny rights to certain genders or races.

Furthermore, it shows the lives of people who were born into a world where discrimination was commonplace but refused to conform to such conventions, from cartoonist Charles Schulz, who realized the prejudice that made the world centered on white people, to disability activist Judy Heuer, who fought to regain the rights of people with disabilities in a society that tried to erase their existence.
This is because breaking old human habits and changing prejudices begins with the personal realization and determination of those who encounter them in their daily lives.

For those who want to reflect on how the world we live in got to where it is today, and to consider and take action toward where we should go, Dear Mr. Schultz will serve as a compass.

“I don’t know the solution, but...”
Clear away old customs and embrace a new era
People who set the standards

Charles Schulz, the cartoonist who enjoyed worldwide popularity with 'Snoopy', received a letter from a woman named Harriet Glickman in 1968, shortly after the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., a leader in the civil rights movement.
It was a request to include a black child character in the Peanuts cartoon series, which was drawn by Schulz and was filled with white children.
Although it will still take a long time and effort for American society to overcome racial conflict, the request was that mass media, and Schulz's paintings in particular, will play a big role in changing the attitudes and perceptions of children who grew up seeing Schulz's paintings.

However, Schultz rejects Glickman's suggestion, saying that simply adding one black character would be seen as condescending to his black neighbors.
It was out of concern for the critical view of 'token black' (a black supporting character inserted formally among mostly white characters) that is still frequently raised these days.
He concluded his reply by saying, “I don’t know the solution.”
Glickman, who received a rejection letter, did not give up and wrote several letters of persuasion and even gathered and delivered the opinions of his black neighbors.
Because Schultz said he “didn’t know” the solution to the racial problem, not “there isn’t one,” I thought there was still room for further persuasion.

The two exchanged letters over several months, which led to the introduction of Franklin, the first black child character in Peanuts.
Looking at the results alone, it seems like it's just a supporting role, but that's not the case.
Schultz meticulously crafted the scenes and dialogue featuring this character, addressing all the controversial issues of the time while eliciting empathy rather than backlash from readers.
By wittily refuting now-hard-to-believe myths and prejudices that black people can't swim or float, or by naturally incorporating into everyday conversation the idea that black people, too, participated in the Vietnam War to fulfill their duty as American citizens.

Charles Schulz didn't immediately agree to adding a black character, but he didn't completely close the possibility.
And the conversation between the two people that followed is a textbook example of how mature people persuade each other and gather opinions.
In "Dear Mr. Schultz," various people like Schultz and Glickman appear, "people who have cleared away old customs and created new standards for the era" (as in the recommendation by Kim So-yeon, CEO of Newnic).

“Disability is the society’s way of creating an environment in which people with disabilities can live.
“It becomes a tragedy only when we fail to provide it.”
Voices that changed the mindset of prejudice

Some people protest the subway protests by people with disabilities, asking, “Why do they have to protest during commuting hours?”
Society has changed, but the United States has remained the same in that it treats people with disabilities as if they do not exist, and criticizes those who demand accessibility as if they are demanding privileges rather than rights.
But in America today, no one complains when a bus slowly bogs down to get a wheelchair in and the driver spends nearly five minutes buckling the wheelchair in.

America wasn't like that from the beginning.
How has it changed? Because disabled people in the United States have been doing the same thing in Korea for decades.
The person who led that movement was Judy Heumann.
In Korea, protesters took to the subway, but Judy Heumann protested by blocking Madison Avenue in the heart of New York.
It was his job to take people's abuse.

Human famously said, “Disability becomes a tragedy only when society fails to provide an environment in which people with disabilities can live.”
At first, people thought this was a strange claim, a strange logic.
At the time, the idea was that people with disabilities were people with inconvenient 'bodies' and that they were inherently 'tragedies', but Human changed the way of thinking by saying, "There is nothing wrong with my body, it is the environment that is the problem."

Social change cannot be achieved by the power of one person, but there are changes that would have been difficult to achieve without one special person.
That's the case with the disability rights movement in the United States, and in that sense, it's hard to find someone who fits the word "catalyst" as well as Judy Heuer.

Discrimination and prejudice do not disappear without human effort.
How to expand your circle of empathy

While on one hand there are those like Judy Heuer, who have become catalysts for the times and have shaped the common sense of the world we live in, on the other hand there are the stories of those who are leading the ongoing fight and thus creating a new culture.

Tennis star Naomi Osaka, who declared that she wanted to protect her mental health by refusing to attend press conferences where she had to answer rude and degrading questions; gymnast Simone Biles, who withdrew from the Olympics, which demanded "mental strength" as an athlete and patriotism as a representative of her country; and Kate Winslet, who listened to her female co-stars and helped them express their discomfort on set, where nudity was required and subtle violence was rampant.

As Director Hong Yun-hee, who created the cooperative Muui to improve the mobility rights of people with disabilities, said in her recommendation, “All discrimination and prejudice do not disappear without human effort,” so discovering their present and expanding the radius of empathy could be an opportunity to change the world.

The stories in Dear Mr. Schultz are largely based on long-form articles from major American media outlets.
But what makes Park Sang-hyun's writing not just a simple translation of an English article but an interesting story is that it provides American cultural codes and background information that Korean readers might miss.
And above all, the topics of diversity, prejudice, and discrimination are actually topics that are more urgently needed in Korean society today.
For those who wish to view Korean society through the lens of the United States, this book will provide a valuable experience.