I just saw a post about what Mamamoo recently did concerning parodying Bruno Mars Uptown Funk.
The story caught my attention very fast considering I am a fan of many of their songs, and feel they’re very talented among most girl groups this generation.
It’s funny cause being a black k-pop fan, you always know you will come across something problematic eventually.
I could talk all day about the previous scandals, G-dragon, Kikwang, etc but today I am here with my own little perspective on the matter.
As unpopular of an opinion as this is, I think this keeps happening because of ignorance. And I don’t mean the new found definition of ignorance that people have been slinging around as if it means ‘doesn’t care’.
I mean these idols actually have no knowledge of blackface. They do not grasp the problem with it and do not understand the history of blackface and why it is so very very offensive.
It is crazy. Especially considering they emulate black culture so frequently. But again just because you listen to black music, or even black influenced music doesn’t mean you understand black history.
I thought back to when I actually became aware of what blackface was. I realized I I didn’t even know what it was until I started doing in-depth research on black history in college. In my Jazz and Pop class we learned about Minstrel shows, and learned about the stereotypes that were forced on African-Americans during that time period. After receiving all that knowledge I was pretty grateful.
I mean if I didn’t know all the way up until college, I could only imagine how unconscious others could have been concerning the matter. Especially non-black, non-american individuals.
When I encounter racism in the K-pop community my reaction is usually something along the lines of “Oh man, y’all dun fucked up now”. But, I do think we need to be aware that most cases are rooted to something deeper . People hate to hear ‘their culture is different’, but realistically it plays a huge role in why things like this happen; not only in South Korea, but other parts of the world too.
Do I believe what they did was wrong? Of course. Even if they weren’t aware they should have been considering they listen to music made my other poc.
Do I accept their apology? Yes. In my opinion it seemed they sincerely did not know it was offensive. And as long as they learn from this mistake I have no issue continuing to listen to their music.
I kinda wish k-pop stars were required to take a class on black culture, but we all know that wouldn’t fly in xenophobic central. Not to mention they probably don’t even know we created it in the first place
*sigh* these idols have so much to learn. But I do think as time passes and K-pop grows bigger things like this will become a rarer occurrence rather than a frequent one.
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