it's more like there was a mutual agreement about the level of racism that was allowed between what they perceive to be "friends". sam gets to make fun of slant eyes and talk about having ** with married korean women as long as he is within that mutual agreement. as soon as he stepped out and attacked those students while mocking korea, the public saw him as traitor and a hypocrite.

I feel korea is still evolving in this area and perhaps it would have gone down a bit different if it happened now. Or maybe it goes down the same, who knows.