CLARIFICATION POST: Chen on V Live Saturday and what he said
In lieu of CBX’s comeback for ‘Blooming Day’, EXO-CBX has done a week of V Live streaming to interact with their fans.
On Saturday’s V Live, the boys played Jenga gifted to them by their Bangkok fans and the punishment for the loser would have their faces painted with various colours of lipstick by the other two winners.
Baekhyun was the first to lose, receiving red lipstick on his cheek and his philtrum so that Chen called it the 'Nose Bleed style’, and the second loser was Chen, who got purple lipstick drawn thickly on around his lips.
He saw his reflection and commented “이거 쿤타킨테 아니에요?” (“Isn’t this Kunta Kinte?”), which was translated as “My lips look too plump!” in the English subtitles, and then saying he looked like Michol.
Kunta Kinte is a character from 'Roots: The Saga of an American Family’ which was made into a movie in 1988 and then remade into a drama series in 2016. Michol is an animation character from the animated film 'Dooly the Little Dinosaur’ created in 1983,' who is in fact South Korean but drawn to look black.
So, why am I bringing this up?
Because I know everyone is talking about how Chen has made a 'racist’ comment, and he is not only being bashed and hated on, some of his fans are also starting to doubt him.
And so I am making this post to clarify what Chen really meant, and why it was translated that way by V Live.
Please note that I am aware that some of you came here with fixed mindset and that whatever I say here will not make you think otherwise. But this post is made for others who are willing to listen and understand a culture that is so different from one that is exposed to people of colour.
Okay, so first let’s look at why Chen referred to Kunta Kinte because of his lips:
Below is a screen capture of a blog post I found on Naver:
“I can’t remember clearly if it was last year or the year before that, but around that time, I had finished work and was resting but the lips of my youngest sibling, who came back from his tuition centre, had become extremely big. You don’t know how funny it was just thinking about it. It turned out that it was because his lips were dry and he had licked his lips excessively ㅋㅋ Must have been for hydration. And so his lips became 'Kunta Kinte.’ Now, you ask, who is 'Kunta Kinte.’
The main character of Alex Haley’s original drama 'Roots’ is Kunta Kinte. It was a movie that was very impactful/moving.
If you are someone who watched the show during that era you probably won’t remember everything but you will remember it as a drama that made you realise how to cherish your freedom. Because of 'Roots,’ that was also a time where people were immature and teased others who had slightly thicker lips than others, calling them 'Kunta Kinte’.”
This showed that Koreans then started calling people with thick lips 'Kunta Kinte’ just because of the main character’s thick lips, not because of anything else. It is just like how we call someone with big ears 'Dumbo,’ or someone with pointed ears an elf, or someone with big front teeth 'Bugs Bunny’. There isn’t a bad connotation to it, yet. In fact, some might even see it as cute.
A negative connotation, however, comes about when the term is misused or overused. It is just like how kids get insecure/upset when their friends point at their ears and laugh at them for having big or pointed ears, calling them 'Dumbo’ or an elf, just to call them names. Before anyone knew about 'Dumbo,’ or 'Bugs Bunny’, no one would have used that term to tease others. It is only when the films came out and there was a prominent special feature about them that people started using those names as terms.
Of course, you would say, but those are cartoons, it’s different from associating a person with another real person. But then haven’t you heard or you said things like “omg Miley Cyrus” even though Miley Cyrus isn’t there but someone else is there twerking and sticking their tongue out?
Anyway, that is for you to think about it. In this other report on Hwangbo’s instagram post, titled 'Hwangbo “My lips "let’s call it 'Angelina Jolie” … “It looks better than Angelina Jolie’s” Sexy lady’, another reference to 'Kunta Kinte’ was made again:
“Singer Hwangbo showed off her attractive lips through SNS in the middle of showcasing her talking skills in her appearance in 'Radio Star.’
Last month on the 7th, Hwangbo posted a picture and a caption that read "When I was younger, I cried all the time because kids called me 'Kunta Kinte’ because of my thick lips” on Instagram.
And then she continued, “Who would’ve known that this would become a trend? Call me Angelina Jolie Muahahaha” and “Only God knows what lies ahead of us.” “
There are a few other blog posts and articles on Naver that talked about how Koreans tease their peers with thick lips, calling them 'Kunta Kinte.’ Like what I said before, this is definitely not a matter of looking down on black people or making a joke out of the African race or taking slavery lightly (since 'Roots’ is a movie about slavery’). 'Kunta Kinte’ was simply an "icon/reference” if you will, for thick lips. And yes, that “icon/reference" could have been any other person. But at that time, 'Roots’ had been released and it just showed its overwhelmingly good view rate in Korea that made the movie and the main character the talk of the town (or country). Just like how Justin Bieber was seen as the "icon/reference” in 2010 to have that annoying bowl haircut so that anyone with such a hairstyle was immediately teased as 'Justin Bieber’. And that still happens, even now.
Now, of course, one might also go “ok but there is Kylie Jenner” and “what about Angelina Jolie,” why do they have to use a black person, especially with something that has a negative connotation? And here is my answer:
Black people are simply who Koreans associate with when talking about thick lips. Not Kylie Jenner (because it’s all fillers), not Angelina Jolie (because she only got famous in the 1990s).
“Q: Apart from black people, why do everyone else in comics not have lips? Looking at the common comic/anime, 'Dooly’s Michol is black and he has lips but other white or black people don’t have lips ㅡㅡ; He looks like a crocodile, why is that so?”
“A: It’s probably because people still think that black and white people still have a lot of differences so they draw it realistically based off the real person’s appearance — a black person with thick lips, white person with no lips or drawn with small lips — in order to show the difference between the characters and so you can imagine them better in real life.
But of course, this is only my thoughts.
“A: They draw it in exaggeration in order to capture their specialty. (The lips) are one of the most core features of a cartoon character. Because black people have thick lips, they emphasise that characteristic in drawing. It’s just like how many draw Americans as characters with blue eyes and blonde hair.”
“A: The special features of different characters in comics:
Black people: Thick lips on dark skin (For females, relatively wider hips and lips)
White people: Deep set eyes with a big nose
Arabians: Thick and big mustache and double eyelids
Asians: Dark hair and small facial features
I think it is the strength of a hard working comic artist (who uses such tactics in order to) express their characters better and make it easier for people to understand and so that their characters come out nicely.”
“Q: What is the reason for thick lips in black people.
A: It’s the special characteristic of their race. They developed that feature in order to sing (so) well and to adapt to their natural environment.”
There are, again, more of these posts and I wish to be able to translate most of them if not all. But it is getting late and I think these posts are enough to explain why people in Korea associate having thick lips to black people — in this case, Kunta Kinte.
It is, once again I stress, not a degrading name/term to use. It is only a label for people with thick lips.
Lastly, I know that some people might also argue that Chen referred to 'Kunta Kinte’ because purple lipstick was used. The thing is, I am sure he would have said the same thing even if a red, pink, blue lipstick was used on him but it just so happened to have been a dark colour. It is the thickness of his 'newly drawn’ lips that made him refer to 'Kunta Kinta.’ But of course, this is only my opinion so I cannot say for sure because it did not and will not happen with other colours and therefore we won’t know.
I am nearing the end of this long post. Thank you for all those who took your time to read, and I hope you understand the situation better now. If there is anything you’d like to add, clarify, or ask, you can contact me on Twitter, Tumblr, or askfm.
The bottom line of this post is:
Chen did not refer to 'Kunta Kinte’ as a derogatory term but simply as what it was — a reference. V Live translated it as having plump lips because in Korea, when you talk about 'Kunta Kinte,’ you talk about thick lips. there is nothing more to it.
To end off, I want to also state that I am in no means playing off racism as something small because it is not. It is just easy to feel offended when it comes to culturally sensitive issues/topics, but this case did not come down to that though elements definitely made it seem like it was.
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