In the case of Korea you also have to take geopolitics into account. America's military presence makes a weird hierarchy. Several GIs have literally gotten away with murder. But even if you're a white civilian you get get deported just for a fist fight. Something I hadn't considered before I went to Korea was the difference that various East Asians are viewed there. In retrospect it's not too surprising, but still quite a shock coming from the States. There's an intense anti-Japanese sentiment, and yet a grudging respect. Whereas Chinese, Filipinos and SE Asians aren't very highly regarded, but also not hated. There's also the subtle colorism in Korea. Fair skin is supposedly more beautiful. I'm sure this effects a lot of people there on an unconscious level. Every so often there's TEFL job listings that explicitly say "whites only" need apply. I'm rather encouraged that so many white expats have spoken up about it. It's still so strange to me that someone from Asian descent is automatically not considered a "real" American/Canadian/etc. And they'll get laughed at for not speaking 100% perfect Korean whereas whites sometimes get praised for saying 안녕하세요.
I think the American military presence is much less of a factor. The Army has gotten better about managing the young enlisted crowd, and anymore there's a greater likelihood that off-base shenanigans gets off-base punishments. And to be really blunt, GIs, especially enlisted, are viewed pretty low in comparison to other OECD foreigners by Koreans... just about the bottom of the developed-world heap. It used to be much worse, in terms of both how some GIs got away with stuff and general tensions between GIs and locals. In the 70s, there was a major riot in/near Itaewon, which started with black GIs not being provided the same services (as well as "services", ahem) as white GIs. The colorism you brought up is interesting. Yeah, it exists, but I wouldn't say that it has a major impact all on its own. It's more or less something that kids tease each other about, and less directly, might play some role with the extreme importance of outward appearance in Korea (pictures on resumes, etc). It's also important to note that this colorism has just about nothing at all to do with white people; it's been considered a mark of beauty and class in Korea for centuries (kind of like it used to be in Europe, where you didn't want to identify as a tanned laborer). The TEFL thing also requires a little more nuance. Those shitty job listings are written by the privileged majority, and they're also among the worst jobs. Korean Americans get the shaft there, but then again Korean Americans get easy access to a much better visa. Interestingly, Irish and other native speakers (white or otherwise) often have doors closed based on their accent- some schools specifically want a North American (most common) or RP-British teacher. We can connect all this back to ethno-nationalism (even ethno-linguistic-nationalism?), as language teaching visas in Korea are restricted to countries where some bureaucatic process has decided real native speakers come from- generally, wealthy(-ish) countries with a visible white population. So South Africans, regardless of what language they actually learned first, are in (including black and brown, though much less common in practice), while Indians and Phillipinos are out- again, you can see some blurry lines between race and economic status.
Wow, never heard about that riot before. I was also thinking about resumes re: colorism. Tho with the way they touch the photos up, I'm sure it not as much of a prejudicial point as it could be. I've noticed in other parts of Asia not even Ireland or S. Africa are considered "real" native English countries.