Blackface in Korean Entertainment
It hurts to see that my skin color is the butt of every joke, well into the 21th century. I refuse to treat South Korea as a child that needs to be scolded and then dismissed under the pretense that they do not know any better. Because they do. And they can no longer hide under the excuse that their blackface is purely for “homage” or “honoring” black people. Because 1) you cannot reclaim blackface as a good, ESPECIALLY when you in particular have overtly presented anti-black sentiments 2) this shit was just racist- no fake homage.
Comedy and racism ARE NOT mutually exclusive, before anyone says anything.
I refuse to treat Korea as a country that needs to be dragged around like a child and taught right from wrong. Thousands of years of its own conflict with other countries and cultural degradation should have been enough time to understand that belittling another culture is wrong.
……
This is selective social indignation at its finest. As cliché as this may sound, this is when the golden rule should come into effect: if you don’t want something like this to happen to you, make sure you don’t do it to others.
Another thing that irks me is that some big international sites and just about all Korean based sites will never make mention of this ever happening. They will just go about sweeping it under the rug as if to say that events like these are too insignificant to pay any mind to…
SeoulBeats commentary on ANOTHER blackface incident that happened about 2 months ago.
When Morning Musume members slanted their eyes to “look Korean”, Koreans automatically identified the racially insensitivity in their actions. “Korean netizens realize that the girls were being harmless but are upset that they were not more conscientious of their surroundings.”[x] ”(Korean) Netizens are angry that, “whenever something like this is forgotten, another case comes out.”
As another fan put it:
“So if the South Korean media and public can identify racism and racial insensitivity when against themselves, why can’t they tell that painting your skin to look “black,” for the sake of entertainment is offensive? A person’s ethnicity should never be considered comedic material. Ever.”
Through KPOP you wanted to capture the world’s attention- well know have it and you keep showing your ass. You want to succeed in the Western Market? You want to be taken seriously as a competitor?
Well, guess what. I am the Western Market- brown skin and all. I am one of many dark-skinned consumers that will determine the degree of your success. And until you take me seriously as a human being, you won’t get anywhere.
And if you think that I stand alone as an irrational black person being angry, there’s other international and Korean fans who are calling this racism out. And plenty of other PoC and white allies.
You even have Eat Your Kimchi calling you out on your bullshit.
I am done with people being passive about this.
Please send MBC a tweet about their blackface
https://twitter.com/#!/withMBC [It is of great importance that you be concise and polite- always polite. Cussin’ them out does nothing.]
(via lycheequeso)
