Dear Korean Pop Stars, Stop Hiding Behind Your Black Fans

Onyx Contributor:  Asher Primus

Honestly, I do listen Korean Pop (K-pop), but not as much as I used to in the past. I got into to it way before there was a huge following from American fans and it was good 10 years ago.  It was a decent alternative to crappy music that trends for one day.  I ended up hating K-pop as they became less pop and R&B to now more rap/hip-hop.  It is traditional for Korean boy bands to have a rapper or two, but their music videos became awkward when they appropriated African American culture.  At first, it seemed to be flattering, but it eventually felt insulting to watch.  I cannot take Korean pop stars seriously when they do not have any consistency in their genre.  How do they debut from the stereotypical Asian schoolboys to gender-fluid metrosexuals to now gangster rappers?

I cannot knock the promotion and global validation via Asian music, it is a hustle and a countermeasure to the poor media promotion of Asian men in American pop culture.  There not many Asian actors’ posters hanging on the bedroom walls of teenagers.  Asian men are labeled as the least desirable in racial attraction, yet K-pop now has non-Asian women lusting after them and appropriating their culture, some even venturing to learn Korean.  Black women have joined the fandom, as well.  Some even created blogs and YouTube videos of compilations K-pop stars interactions with them or how they wish to be in a relationship with Asian men.  These random videos may seem genuine, but I cannot overlook the anti-blackness from Asians.  Korea for starters has a reputation of portraying Africans as wild savages and then there is the Bubble Sisters who performed blackface, while mocking black women for their hair and spirituality.  I have tried explaining this to K-pop fans, but they live in a post-racial fantasy world.  Granted, black female K-pop fans are usually suburban nerds and to a degree being from hood or urban experience pays off, since we are not afraid to call out racism even from other non-black POC.

What is funny about black fans lusting for K-pop stars is that these men rarely date outside their race and have never been seen with dating African American women.  Granted, since they live in Korean, so they are not going to out their way to date interracially when most Koreans are of full Asian descent.  Surprisingly, I want Korean pop stars to date black women, so they can stop using them for international fandom.  If Jay Park, Big Bang, BTS and GOT7 like black women, then it is ridiculous for them to go on Korean radio shows to vaguely saying they like dark-skinned women just to sexually tease black women.  In theory, the goal is to have a large enough black fandom so they can defend Koreans’ anti-blackness so they can hide behind black women since they are their new American audience.  Unlike, black men who are not so forgiving on racial politics as it has been exposed that these Korean pop stars have been itching to get a pass to say the N-word live on television.  Even overseas, black men are not going to give permission to non-blacks to use our struggle and likelihood as a gimmick.  Koreans pop stars are flashing drugs, objectification of women, violence and guns in their music videos, yet K-pop fans will blindly say that is a better genre morally versus music from black artists.

I wonder if FOX News will create a false statistic claiming Asian crimes in America has spiked due to K-pop.  They are stealing black men’s swag and aesthetics to repackage as safe and not rock the boat too much with racialized controversy.  It is all marketing with divide and conquer by showing pseudo-love to black girls, while disrespecting black men.  Asians are aware that black women are getting tired of dating black men and the self-hate that they bring in the dating game, yet black people forget that most of their learned behaviors in supporting colorism and self-hatred stems from other races.  Remember it was an Asian psychologist, Satoshi Kanazawa who racially theorized that black women are more masculine than other races of women and sadly this notation has been used by MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way) and social media trolls.