And the company that films these videos?
How can you blame the trainees? Do you think they have the right to refuse, when they're all fighting for a chance to debut?
If you're going to blame someone, do it logically... instead of blaming a trainee, blame an idol who has control over her career.
This is getting ridiculous.
Display MoreTo me, the larger issue is how many idols that supposedly love hip-hop and studied it don't ever come away from or with more than a superficial understanding of it just being about "swag" and "flexing"
You're studying to be a rapper, you speak English and it never occurs to look up the one word you don't know that comes up frequently? Or understand the endless songs about racism and the black experience
This is a gripe I have with KHH and idol rappers in general. Love our rhythm but not our blues.
That being said, I don't think trainees singing it is that deep. Mostly funny
Literally!!! And bp (who are my alts) has been using AAVE and black culture in their branding since debut! It’s so disappointing, they throwing around a slur towards my people like it’s a regular Tuesday before they debut… SHAMEFUL as hell
Display MoreAnd the company that films these videos?
How can you blame the trainees? Do you think they have the right to refuse, when they're all fighting for a chance to debut?
If you're going to blame someone, do it logically... instead of blaming a trainee, blame an idol who has control over her career.
This is getting ridiculous.
Yeah I can't imagine a trainee being like "no I can't say this word and let me tell you why" and try to educate the people who are literally deciding whether they get a job or not. A vocal trainer could take it as disrespect and be like "oh you think you're smarter than me huh?" and make their life that much harder than it already is. Add on top of that Korea has super strict hierarchy dynamics and places so much importance on manners and respect to elders or superiors. It's to the extent of if you bow 45 degrees and don't bow the full 90 degrees to a sunbae, people can take offense. I blame the company more than the idols. I think YG learned their lesson by the time they started training Babymonster since you see them subbing all the words for their evaluations.
Also, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand each have like around 1-2% black people. And Jennie only studied in New Zealand for four years before moving back to Korea. They all dropped out of middle school or high school (I think Rose was the only one that went to high school). And if you argue the BP members must've been exposed to Western media, Koreans (and the rest of the world) regularly consume Western music and film too but that doesn't mean they know anything about Black history.
I still think the members should take responsibility regardless and apologize to anyone who was hurt or disappointed. They haven't said the n word since they debuted to our knowledge and now have enough life and work experience to know the significance.
I blame the company more than the idols. I think YG learned their lesson by the time they started training Babymonster since you see them subbing all the words for their evaluations.
I believe a babymonster member got caught saying the n word during training evaluation. Maybe they changed it after that but I remember a member said it. I fully agree it's mainly on the company because I am unsure how much power a trainee has to say no. The company is using black culture in their songs and aesthetics, so they should at least have respect for culture and not use word or do certain things.
Another issue with YG and the n word, I don't think they've ever apologized for using it. It's why I feel the dynamic with that company using rap, aave, aesthics, and black culture in general is a head-scratcher. They teeter heavily towards appropriation instead of appreciation.
Display MoreKpop takes inspiration from the black community, and I believe what differentiates appropriation vs appreciation is being knowledge and doing research on the culture/music you're borrowing from.
At that time, the company failed to provide these contexts and resources to the trainees. I'm not entirely sure how old the girlies were when those were recorded; nonetheless, the company should encourage and provided them with the proper materials to help them understand context (then again, companies only care about the money).
Now, if BP members were dropping these present day: that's on the artist.
Personally, I'm not upset at the girlies for dropping the n word during trainee days. Different culture, time, and education. I am, once again, disappointed by the company.
they were young if Miyeon was still there so they probably were like 16/17 ish like 2 or 3 years before debut at least
Not trying to excuse them but the n word usage is an issue that has been around in every Korean label.
Maybe the positive thing from all this ( if there is) it's that from on kpop companies are gonna be more aware of the history of the n word and finally be aware of the negative impact and how much people are offended by it.
Interesting ...
Almost all of Europe is not in the Anglosphere.
The amount of English spoken as a second language differs a lot per country. You got your Nordic countries and the Netherlands, where the great majority of people can speak English as a second language and have watched many American movies without them being dubbed. I'd say a lot of people (though not all) there know what the N-word is and that it should not be spoken.
In many other European countries that knowledge is much less prevalent.
More than 50% of Europeans still can't have a decent conversation in English and even if they do, it does not mean they know the cultural significance of the N-word. Just like how Americans often have no clue about what is sensitive to people in other countries.
Having said that, amongst young people 70% can now hold a decent conversation in English, but that still doesn't mean (aside from the countries already mentioned) that they know what the N-word is or why they should not say it. Of course some do, but depending on the country, more of fewer of them don't.
So if they hear it in a song that sounds cool to them, chances are they will sing along with the sounds, just like lots of Kpop fans sing along without knowing what they're singing.
Having said that, I don't really understand both the wish to promote songs with the N-word to audiences that are not allowed to sing along to it and the wish of people who are not allowed to sing it, know what it means, but still want to consume those songs.
I agree with OP that in Kpop it's often just used for dumb fanwars.
As for Kpop companies, they should definitely know better by now. This has been brought up so many times that you think they would know.
Ho hum..
Americans and pseudo-Americans guilty over slavery/racism, impose the same guilt upon rest of the world.
No thanks, every culture/society has its own mistakes to live with, we don't need to carry American guilt as well.
Poor K-idols, their venture into American markets, they now have to live up to those standards as well.
Wait until a idol visits a Buddhist temple with Swastika on it, and then all the idiots will go crazy.
We don't have a word that shouldn't be used, the concept of something like this existing is foreign. Even people who speak english, and there's a lot of them, might not know it shouldn't be used. Singing a word that's in lyrics is a given, nobody would even give a though about it. I don't swear but i always sing swears because they are in lyrics.
Quotejust like i see tons of people saying " black people" in USA
which seems to be "fine" there
but if you use the direct translation in french which is " personne noire" you would be directly consider as racist here
cuz we use the term "personne de couleur" which means "colored people"
Regardless cultures.
Due to grammar and vocabulary we don't say "black people" but crnci. Nor "white people" but belci. Not "asian people" but azijati. We don't use word "people" to call a certain groups of people. I'd say that the closest option in english would be blacks and whites but i read that calling black people blacks is insulting. We can use "white people" in a historical sense, something that happened a long, long time ago.
Also, people of color doesn't work in my language (ljudi od boje means nothing), it could only be coloured people (obojeni ljudi) which is in english insulting and in my language it is too. We don't have POC term. We might say non whites but we usually mention nationalities who we are talking about.
One more thing. We don't make a difference between white, black and hispanic, etc Americans. To us only nationality matters and they are american only. That might be the reason for not getting the issue. Our history really doesn't have anything similar with american or any other that had slaves.
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