here is your African true story Africa and Africa diaspora K-pop and the disillusion of racism and
cultural appropriation of Africans and people of African descent K-pop has expanded considerably
over the last few years South Korean artists that were largely invisible outside their home
country now and back on huge world tours receive worldwide media attention and collaborate with
non-asian artists yet as the K-pop industry has grown to incorporate a larger and more diverse
base of international funds and with it their spending power one issue that has never been
fully confronted is that of cultural appropriation racism and racial insensitivity some K-pop artists
put on black sense and wear ethnic hairstyles in their music videos other artists utilize
Black Culture for comedic purposes dressing up in blackface while imitating famous musicians
a few artists acts as though they are one with Black Culture entirely using the n-word in their
lyrics all of these are examples of cultural appropriation racism and racial insensitivity
cultural appropriation occurs when elements of our culture are used taken or adopted
by people not of that culture without proper education of their culture they are taking from
this kind of appropriation is harmful and offensive promoting exploitation
resulting in racist action and frequently involving a lack of cultural recognition
unfortunately cultural appropriation of black hip-hop rap afrobeat and reggae culture in the
Korean music industry is rampant racism and cultural appropriation in K-pop are easily
one of the most controversial current topics on the internet
many people have talked about it from the start and many continue to talk about it as many Koreans
can be very racist to black people or are very fascinated with them in a way that is not okay
Koreans are also obsessed with white people and their Skin's skin tone that seeing a black person
is new and strange to them it is such a problem that there are posts on how to be safe in Korea if
you are a black person there are countless stories of people talking about their experiences like
harassment for pictures restrictions from entering nightclubs and restaurants asking to touch their
hair locals refusing to sit next to Black persons in trains racial [ __ ] and general rudeness
we regularly often see occasions of cultural appropriation or racism with K-pop stars in
their song music videos and dressing but sadly these situations usually get ignored
and end up being pushed aside despite the disapproval and disappointment expressed
by many International fans especially Africans and people of African descent
it is rather an uncomfortable and disappointing feeling to support an artist and discover that
they find elements of black and African culture to be a joke or something that does not deserve
respect it is even more disappointing when fans of said Idols raise awareness about these issues
and bring it to the attention of these idols and their companies on social media but it
just gets ignored it is also an odd thing to see since so many K-pop Idols want to globalize and
extend into International markets but luck the cultural sensitivity training or the initiative
to learn more about various cultures of the International Community and how to respect them
unfortunately K-pop doesn't care and in fact nether does a huge chunk of their listeners
K-pop success in capitalizing of a black and African culture is partially because a large
portion of funds are only willing to hear Black lyrics except black style and much more when it's
through their mouths and appearances of Korean musicians many K-pop listeners simply do not
care to understand the complexities of black and African culture and how it applies to the music
industry similarly the corporate world of South Korea fails to consider and occasionally ignorance
these issues because producing Distributing and marketing the culture makes them money
why then should K-pop faces make money off emulating black people while black people are
discriminated against every day Idols have disrespected and appropriated black people
repeatedly and the sad part is that these Idols don't get any repercussions for the behavior and
still grow a following even within the same people they despise this Idols need to educate themselves
on cultural appropriation and racism because people of color are not bound to teach ignorant
people anything about trees the main thing that these idols and companies can do is obviously
listen to the international following when there is an incident of cultural appropriation many fans
are quick to tell these idols and companies what they did wrong companies can have more cultural
sensitivity training but that should not be needed as the internet is accessible to everyone
being being that these people are adults they should be capable of seeing incidences from
their past and understand what those past Idols did wrong thanks for watching please subscribe
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