[theqoo] "Are you stalking BTS?"...LA Concert's onsite fans, verbally and physically assaulting Korean fans

[theqoo] "ARE YOU STALKING BTS?" ... LA CONCERT'S ONSITE FANS, VERBALLY AND PHYSICALLY ASSAULTING KOREAN FANS

While BTS held their concert in Los Angeles (LA) for the first time in two years, there were claims that a Korean fan who visited the concert was racially discriminated against, assaulted, and verbally abused by some local fans.

On the 3rd (Korean time), a number of posts were made on Twitter that the day before, a local fan assaulted a Korean fan at BTS's 3rd concert.

On the 2nd, at Sofi Stadium, where 'BTS PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE - LA' was held, some local fans physically and verbally assaulted a Korean fan. It is said that when an Asian-looking fan passed by, they murmured, "Aren't they Korean?" and even went as far as assaulting them as a group.

Some Korean fans also reported having their faces filmed by cellphones and received threats to have their pictures posted on social media including Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.

They claimed that they had a bad perception of Korean fans, especially 'fansites (Hommas)'. Homma is an abbreviation for Homepage Master, meaning a fan who takes high-definition photos of celebrities and posts them on social media.

There are also Hommas who take pictures for personal collection, but Hommas with more than 100,000 followers are known to make and sell photobooks or to make money by sharing celebrities' personal schedules.

Local fans are said to have made racist remarks to Korean fans, saying, "Are you coming all the way to the US to stalk BTS?" and "Stop using BTS to make money." A number of posts mocking Korean fans in English were also posted on Twitter.

A fan who said that they were abused by a local fan said on Twitter, "Local fans seem to have a big negative perception of Korean fans. They seemed to be proud of themselves when they were hitting and swearing at Hommas. I felt disillusioned seeing such inhumanity”.

They continues "Is it something we did wrong enough to be photographed and beaten around? If we really only saw BTS as money, we would only buy photo data from local fans and resell them as goods."

Adding "I've been wanting to see a concert for a long time, it's unfair to be beaten up like this. What did we do so wrong?".

source: https://news.v.daum.net/v/20211203100004890

original post: here

1. I'm a bit disappointed to see that Bangtan has fans like them. Do they not know how much of an influence Hommas brought to KPOP? Of course sasaengs are an issue, but they can't just bully any Asians because they feel like it

2. Do they think that being Korean makes us all sasaengs? Of course not. They're quite close-minded

3. No but if you're going to beat up someone, go beat up the real sasaeng fans. Hitting people with or without cameras just because they're Korean is seriously pure racism. Meanwhile, they're fangirling on Korean singers;;

4. This is real. And it's not a one time occurrence. They've been like that since 2019. Last year and the year before, BTS couldn't go on tour, so we didn't have this problem, but if you look at 2019, when we weren't in pandemic, their offline bullying and cyber bullying was so severe. They weren't only doing this towards Koreans either. They were just doing that to anyone who were Asians..... In 2019, a Homma was having it so hard with the bullying that she just booked a flight back to Korea. Be too, I watched the bullying videos in question back then and it was so bad. You could see their faces revealed and they would just upload it like that on SNS. You can even see them saying "I'm not a Homma, I'm just a normal fan..." We can't ignore this anymore. They're doing this towards every Asian they see with a camera in their hands. We don't know how far they would go even towards normal fans in the future. This is a severe issue...

5. As a Bangtan fan myself, here's how I feel. I feel like International fans don't know how far we've cracked down on sasaengs and we've stopped supporting them?
The fandom is so big, so it would be impossible to rid all of the sasaengs, but the Hommas are seriously working so hard to keep their limits while taking good pictures and videos to promote them.
I bet there are hardly any fans who haven't used Homma pictures, videos and gifs?
But just because they don't like it, assaulting someone at an event is just dumbfounding. There aren't only 1 or 2 Hommas who have been a victim of this and it's scary.
Meanwhile, they're all happy again when the Hommas prepare birthday support and events? This is all spent with the Hommas' own money...

6. Rather than racism, I feel like it comes more from an inferiority complex towards Korean fans? And I feel like they're lashing out on the Hommas because of that. Asking "isn't it illegal?" "are you a sasaeng?" they're just trying to come up with reasons to do it

7. .... What is happening?

8. They're so funny, they're following their schedules like everyone else, but they're the stalkers? They're not even following their private schedules and attend their public schedules, but they get called creepy and obsessed?

9. This has always been f*cking severe...
This is racism. They're watching so many contents illegally and they also consume Hommas' pictures and videos, meanwhile, they're bullsh*tting against Hommas

10. This is seriously making me bitter.
Seeing how they're calling it a "payback" by taking pictures of the fans and posting their faces on Twitter makes me even more...Bitter.
The idols they like themselves are Asian, meanwhile, they're being racist against their very country... This is ironic and seeing this happen in real life is just sad.