Racism paints K-pop into corner

Min, a member of miss A, came under criticism last month for posting the top photo on her Instagram account. In the above photo, K-pop group BEAST member Lee Gi-kwang with his face painted black voraciously eats a piece of watermelon during a comedy show aired in July 2010. There are many other K-pop musicians who have gotten their face painted black in order to entertain their fans, reflecting the racial insensitivity that exists in the K-pop scene. / Korea Times file

Artists insensitive to blacks; roots date before start of 'hallyu'

By Park Si-soo

K-pop artists' bigotry threatens to defray the main genre of "hallyu" or Korean wave.

Last month, Min, a member of popular girl band miss A, landed in hot water for posting a photoshopped image on her Instagram account that showed big black American rapper Rick Ross' head on the body of a woman in a tight dress.

A caption with image of fried chicken says "Rick Ross — 24 pieces are not enough."

Min deleted the image after protests of racism. Min's photo offends black people, reminding them of a practice prior to the Emancipation and reinforcing a stereotypical image about colored people.

JYP Entertainment, handler of Min and her group, argued, "Min posted it without any malicious intent. She had no intention of causing a racial discrimination controversy."

In August, G-Dragon posted a selfie of his black-painted face onto his Instagram account. YG Entertainment claimed that it was not a political or racial statement."

In February, Korean-American K-pop songwriter and singer Jenny Hyun set off a racial conflict on Tweeter by expressing her racial bigotry against black people. She was later confirmed to have been suffering from psychiatric problems.

Such acts or language deal a critical blow to K-pop's hard-won international popularity. Major K-pop musician incubators — SM, YG and JYP — have yet to provide its musicians with systematic anti-racism education programs.

"Why is K-pop so racist towards people of color?" a user of Asianfanfics asked in an article posted in June on the all-English social fan fiction website. Introducing themselves as Ghanaian, the author argued that K-pop musicians are "just being ignorant and probably need to be taught about colored people."

The user went on, "First of all, non-colored people really need to stay out of it because they do not know the utter devastation it puts a person like me in, to find out that people of ‘my kind' are degraded and laughed at as a form of entertainment for others."

In another article posted on kpopsecrets regarding Jenny Hyun's racist rant, an African girl who introduced herself as a K-pop lover, said, "For this reason, a lot of black fans have actually left the K-pop fandom and I really don't blame them." She said, "I don't feel like K-pop artists pay attention to the black demographic of their fans and this is just further proof."

The problem is that racism dates further back than K-pop.

"Racial discrimination and prejudice can exist in any country throughout the world," prominent Korean-American hip-hop musician Tiger JK said in a contributing article to the all-English K-pop news outlet allkpop in March last year.

"Korea is currently enjoying attention around the world with the K-pop phenomenon along with other human resources. If we learn a little more about the history of Africans, we could understand why it's not right to present them as comic objects because their history contains a lot of pain, deadly revolutions and struggles to regain their human dignity."

The rare contribution by Tiger JK came when the country's second biggest broadcaster MBC was wrestling with intense criticism at home and abroad for airing two female comedians — Lee Kyung-shil and Kim Ji-sun — who parodied Michol, a Korean cartoon character inspired by Michael Jackson, during a prime time comedy show with both covered in black makeup.

The controversy surrounding the show started with an online posting by an angry African-American who watched it on the Internet. The posting inspired various American websites to carry video and photo files of Korean celebrities' blackface acts, fueling the racial conflict.

MBC managed to quell the collective anger with a formal apology, but the incident revealed how much Korean celebrities are ignorant when it comes to racial discrimination. Prior to this, many other celebrities, including K-pop musician Lee Gi-kwang, a member of K-pop boy band BEAST, and four-member girl band Bubble Sisters, performed a skit in blackface on TV or on concert stages.

Experts say Korea's blackface comedy dates back to the 1980s when comedians performed skits, wearing Rasta wigs with painted faces. Despite its racist subtext, the genre of domestic comedy wasn't exposed to local criticism — until K-pop started grabbing worldwide attention.

K-pop's global "fanscape" is well demonstrated in the results of an online poll CJ E&M, Korea's largest entertainment conglomerate, conducted last month to shortlist candidates for the firm's year-end music awards, which were held in Hong Kong, Friday. More than 10 million people from 191 countries cast ballots in the online poll.