We are all of us stars, and we deserve to twinkle

okay so before i start this list, i just wanna clarify: i am an exo stan. i love exo. i just dont love all the stuff they say/do. if you want to complain about me making this or ask me why i did, please read this first, honestly i will not respond to anyone who has not read this first.

If you think i’ve missed anything please send me a message but don’t forget to try to include a source! now onto the list:

Overall

(mis)use of a haka-style dance

Exo-K

Baekhyun

Said that Kai’s defining feature was that his “face is most dark” in this video around 22:19 making Kai visibly uncomfortable (though he did then refer to it as ‘sexy bronze skin’ at 22:36)

Then proceeded to say Tao’s “face color is dark because it’s green” at 23:11 of the same video

Liked some blackface edits on instagram (there’s debate about whether these screencaps were faked or not because when people checked the photos, they weren’t liked by him, however he could have easily just unliked them)

Made a joke about autistic children in this video at 2:23 (this has been a hugely controversial topic and so i will address it at the bottom of this post)

Saved Kai as ‘Blackie’ in his phone contacts (said at 10:00)

Wore a ‘White Power’ shirt

Teased Luhan about his acrophobia

Mocked Kris for missing his mother in Exo Showtime Episode 4 starting at 30:21

Continuously mocked/imitated Tao’s Korean during Exo Showtime

Allegedly posted some offensive/misogynistic comments to his Cyworld account predebut including things such as “Tayeon is ugly” and “Look at Park Bom’s freaking mouth, she’s so ugly” (Some people have said that the posts are fake)

When D.O got a tan, Baekhyun said “He smells burnt”

Chanyeol

Asked Kai “Do you want to go for skin whitening” to try to make him laugh

Assigned gummy bears to Exo-K members and said the darkest one was Kai

Said that Kai was in charge of skin color in the group

In the same interview, Kai sort of called him out on his colorism/shadism and Chanyeol said “my noona is a little on the tanned side, no wonder why you guys acted like you were so close with each other”

Said “Even your chair is dark-colored!” to Kai at an event, and Kai got visibly uncomfortable/offended and kinda called him out

Used a caricature app to make the Exo members and created Tao (left) and Kai (top row, middle) with much darker skin

Said “I thought the lights were not entering over there” in reference to the corner where Kai and Tao were sitting in this video at about 22:25 and then said “Tao, right now you’re darker” at 22:47

Allegedly called SNSD ugly without makeup on, on his Cyworld account predebut (though there is debate about whether it was fake or not)

Mocked Kris for missing his mother in Exo Showtime Episode 4 starting at 30:21

Mocked Tao’s Korean despite not being able to speak Chinese himself

D.O

Laughed when Baekhyun said that he has Kai saved as Blackie in his phone contacts (10:05)

Kai

Said the n-word in a pre-debut video with a hard ‘-er’ at the end (there has however been a lot of debate over whether it was actually Kai who said it in the video because it is somewhat difficult to tell, though he was still seen laughing in it)

in a phone call with Shinee’s Taemin, Taemin said that when he first saw Kai he thought he was South American and Kai replied by saying he thought Taemin was Usher

Allegedly said “are you a r*tard?” in the background of one of Chanyeol’s instavids (there’s debate over whether or not he said that or something else, but since the video & soundcloud files have been deleted it’s hard to tell)

culturally appropriated braids in the ‘Wolf’ music video (however I’m gonna say this one was out of his hands and blame SM Entertainment because I don’t think he has much control over his concept look?)

Sometimes deflects colorism to Tao**

Sehun

Said “how can you say something that doesn’t even make sense?” when Chanyeol and Chen asked him if he would be fine being with a man on ‘We Got Married’

Said on ShimShimTapa radio show that his ideal type would have pale skin

Suho

Allegedly asked if a b&w picture could “go any darker” because Kai was in it*

Pulled a face when Gukjoo was dancing in front of him at MAMA starting at 0:13 (there has been some debate over whether it was just because he was uncomfortable about the nature of the dance or whether it was because it was Gukjoo dancing)

Exo-M

Chen

Laughed a lot when Chanyeol asked Kai if he wanted to lighten his skin

Said Kai was ‘the darkest guy’ (though in the context it’s not inherently mocking/rude, it was unnecessary and I’m including it anyway)

When Xiumin chose him as first place after being asked which exo member he’d date if he were a girl, he said “It feels pretty good to be in first place, but it is first place from the viewpoint of a male…” but then said a few seconds later “This first place feels a little… it’s a good thing! it’s good” (Sukira Sline Chartshow, 22:14)

Lay

When asked who their ideal types would be if the other members were girls, Chen chose Luhan and Chanyeol chose D.O and Lay then took the microphone to clarify that they were not gay by saying “Don’t misunderstand us. Our team is real men.”

A similar incident occurred at a concert(?) when Lay said “Actually, we are all men, real men ah! Everyone, don’t think of dirty thoughts!” after discussing cross-dressing and wigs

Made a negative comment about Tao’s skin being dark

Mocked Kris for missing his mother in Exo Showtime Episode 4 starting at 30:21

Said if he didn’t perm his hair it would go curly “just like an African”

Tao

When asked about his ideal type, said that she “can’t be too chubby/fat” and “must have a nice body” at 5:10 (the video at the link has been taken down but i can assure you he said it) [edit: said he feels differently now in a more recent interview]

Said “He has darker skin than me, doesn’t he?” about Kai at a Taiwanese concert* **

Frequently deflects colorism to Kai**

Xiumin

Calls Kai ‘kkamjong’ which translates to ‘black Jongin’ (Kai’s real name is Jongin) though this seems to be a group nickname, I am not aware of exactly who uses it

He and Chen chose Kai and Tao as the members they wouldn’t want to date if they were girls, when Chen was explaining why, Xiumin interrupted him and said “They both have a similarity, they’re both tanned” (Sukira Sline Chartshow, 32:45)

During ‘surpLINEs EXO’ episode 1, the members were playing a game where one person would say “put your finger down if you have/do/are ____” and the others would have to do so, and Xiumin said “put your finger down if you have darker skin than me” so that Kai, Tao and Chanyeol had to put their fingers down (8:28)

Former Members

Kris

Drew the exo members and specifically drew only Kai and Tao with a brown pen

Said “No matter what your family is like, personally I feel that men are different from women, men should be independent, should start their careers and shoulder responsibilities.”

Described himself as a ‘little black coal’ when he was young and implied that he was unattractive because his skin was dark

He said girls put on makeup in the hopes of “attracting the opposite sex”

Said he preferred light-skinned girls

Luhan

Laughed at fatphobic/body-shaming comments in this video starting around 11:00

Said “in general, you’re skin looks better if you have a lighter skin tone” and then said that the only issue with Tao’s skin was his skin tone

Said his ideal type would have “white skin”

Mocked Kris for missing his mother in Exo Showtime Episode 4 starting at 30:21

Posted a photograph of him in a face mask on Weibo and captioned it “I heard that this picture would drive people with OCD crazy..”

Unsourced (and therefore unreliable)

Apparently there were some old online comments from Baekhyun’s cyworld account where he called girls at his High School sluts but I cant find any screenshots

Chanyeol and Baekhyun apparently admitted to teasing the Chinese members at first for their pronunciation/korean and acted somewhat cold towards them, though I cannot find a source for this

Many people have said Chanyeol said his ideal type would have white/pale skin but I can’t find a source on that so I’m not sure

I also vaguely remember seeing a picture of exo which one of the members wrote comments on and there was something about Kai’s skin being dark but I can’t remember who it was (possibly Kai himself?) or for the life of me find it again so this is unsourced for the time being

*Anything with an asterisk besides it is a fan account and so may not be entirely reliable, though are usually fairly trustworthy

**All colorism is bad, but i think it’s fair to say that whenever Tao or Kai try to deflect colorist comments onto each other, it is usually a form of defence mechanism that stems from internalised colorism. That doesn’t make it okay and it doesn’t mean it can’t be just as harmful, but considering they are nearly always the victims of such colorist comments, it is somewhat different to when they come from somebody else who is unaffected by them.