3 Things That Need To Change In The Misrepresentation Of Black Culture In K-Pop

With the growth of media and the power of the internet, entertainment industries from all over the world have been influenced by each other's culture. Much like artists are being influenced by K-Pop and Korean culture, K-Pop also gets influence from other cultures. One of the cultures that K-Pop gets a lot of influence from is black culture.

Lee SooMan, the CEO of SM Entertainment once spoke about the influence of black music on K-Pop (according to "What is the K in K-pop? South Korean Popular Music, the Culture Industry, and National Identity," page 357).

"South Korea has best consumed black music in Asia. Just as J-Pop was built on rock, we made K-Pop based on black music." 

Park JinYoung, the CEO of JYP Entertainment, also mentioned in an interview that he initially produced music that he described as, "...black music with a K-Pop feel," for his artists.

Considering that some of the original K-Pop groups and songs were modeled after black music, it is important that K-Pop understands the culture that it takes influence from and how to respect it. This applies to every other culture as well.

Here are 3 things that need to change in order to show respect for black culture and K-Pop fans.

 

1. Inaccurate imitations of black culture

There are a lot of stereotypes and misunderstandings when it comes to black culture in Korea. Unfortunately, media in Korea often portrays black people in negative ways such as poor and starving or as scary criminals. This video looks deeper into that by asking random Korean people about what they think of black people.

Korean people may misunderstand black people and culture for a number of reasons. As a result, the K-Pop and K-HipHop industries may upset black fans with their representation of black culture based on inaccurate media representation.

For example, K-Pop idols often use what Koreans call 'Black English' when trying to imitate or make jokes about black people. Black English is also known as AAVE (African American Vernacular English). It is a dialect of English often associated with African Americans.

 

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When K-Pop idols speak it, it is usually very dramatized and mocks black people. Again, it is an example of stereotyping (painting something with the same brush).

AAVE originates from black history. During slavery, African people were forbidden from practicing their culture. Just like they were forced to cut their cornrows to hide their clan identities (mentioned in our previous article on cultural appropriation), African people were not allowed to speak their home language.

Slave owners worried that they would try to plan ways to escape if they spoke their own languages. So, African people learned English but created their own code language.

It includes using continuous tenses to speak about time vaguely, using words with opposite meanings, and using double negatives.

Many cultures think that African American people who speak this way are uneducated or ignorant, without knowing that this language was made on purpose. African Americans have re-appropriated (re-adapted) this code language and made it a part of how they speak daily to embrace their history.

It becomes cultural appropriation when Black English is used to belittle African Americans or insult them. That is why it is important for other cultures, and the K-Pop industry, to understand that it shouldn't be used as a joke.

K-Pop idols also tend to exaggerate their body movements when they use Black English. They swing their bodies and arms, making symbols that they think are 'hip-hop style.' This is also inappropriate.

 

2. The use of the 'N word'

The 'N word' is also frequently used in K-Pop. Many idols and Korean celebrities have used the word, sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly. This is hurtful for many black K-Pop fans.

For those of you who don't know, 'the N word' is a euphemism for an insulting racist slur used by other races to refer to black people.

There are words used the same way as 'the N word' in many languages, even in Korean. This video shows how Koreans react to the word in their own language. Most of the reactions are bad, meaning that the English word should be treated just as carefully.

The 'N word' originated from the Portuguese and Spanish word for black. At first, when slaves arrived in the United States, they were called by this word. This word was used as a racial sneer that made black people feel like they were not human.

This word has held weight throughout history from the beginning of slavery to The Civil Rights Movement, to even the current day.

The “N word” is not just a word. It’s not neatly contained in a racist past, or a relic of slavery. Fundamentally, the “N word” is an idea disguised as a word. That Black people are intellectually, biologically and immutably inferior to white people.

-Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor

— Raheem Elijah Zaid (@RaheemElijahX) May 8, 2021

Much like AAVE, it has been re-appropriated by the black community which is why it can still be heard today. However, it is said in a certain way and in a certain context. It is not allowed to be used by other races at all. Knowing this context, it is obvious that it is a cruel word that should never be used.

"When it comes to words and their meanings today, their meaning is determined by how the hearer interprets the word and not by what the word originally meant."

In other words, if you say a word that you think is not offensive to someone and it upsets them, you have said something offensive. The original meaning of the word doesn't matter. It only matters how it makes the other person feel.

 

3. The use of blackface

Blackface has a long history of appearing in the Korean entertainment industry, especially in variety shows and done by comedians. Unfortunately, many K-Pop idols have done it, too.

They do it whenever they play the role of a black person on TV or for a skit. This is problematic because, again, blackface has an insulting history.

Blackface originated from plays that white people would show to make fun of black people and mock them, in the 1800s in the U.S.

White actors would paint their faces black and their lips big and red. They would wear torn clothes and act in a stupid and insulting way. Their acting was based on stereotypes and painted black people in a bad light.

"It's not the same as Halloween. Halloween is about witches, and Dracula, and ghosts. These are all figments. African American people are not figments, they are real humans."

"It's okay for a white person to go to Halloween as Obama, for example, but they don't have to go as Obama in blackface."

There is no problem with dressing up as anyone that you admire, as long as you do it respectfully.

"When you dress up as Iron Man or as Captain America, do you paint your face white? You don't, right?"

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It is not wrong to want to dress up as somebody that you admire or need to acts for a serious acting role. However, it is important to do so respectfully and without being offensive.