G-Dragon's Camp Says K-Pop Star Wasn't Wearing Blackface

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

Says Trayvon Martin-like Instagram photo was both "HUGE misunderstanding" and reference to cover art from Big Bang mastermind's next solo effort



An Instagram photo of South Korean pop idol G-Dragon wearing what appears to be a hoodie and dark coloring over his skin was not meant as a comment on race or politics, according to a rep for the Big Bang leader.

"GD was simply wearing different facepaint colors and this is a HUGE misunderstanding," the spokesperson said in an email to SPIN. "The facepaint is only a color variation for his album cover which includes black, white, and red. It is in no way meant to be a political or racial statement."

The rep further clarified, "It’s being derived by a simple photo shoot where GD was using different facepaint colors for his upcoming album."

G-Dragon's spokesperson also said SPIN's article reporting on the image "is completely wrong and taken out of context."

The response comes after we reported on the photo, noting its resemblance to an iconic image of slain Florida youth Trayvon Martin and pointing out that it had drawn criticism online. Though the singer's Instagram account made no mention of Martin, the image bears an eerie similiarity to a meme that had Frank Ocean, Diddy, the-Dream, and others posting photos of themselves in a hoodie last year. (Rap-Up has a good collection of these Martin-inspired images.) Online forums Oh No They Didn't! and One Asian World previously pointed out an alleged connection to the Martin tributes.

G-Dragon is set to appear at KCON 2013, a K-pop convention in Los Angeles on August 24 and 25, and he is readying a new solo album. G-Dragon's 2012 "Crayon" was SPIN's No. 1 K-pop song of the year. His group Big Bang's "Bad Boy" was one of SPIN's 21 Greatest K-Pop Songs of All Time. Check out our coverage of a Big Bang concert in New Jersey here.

The original Instagram photo is below:

That's some Justin Bieber level of PR...

EDIT:
the official omona twitter has shared our open letter with authors from spin and the la times who wrote articles about GD.

Spin

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/after_the_rain_/]

Spin gets a fail, GD gets a fail. EVERYONE GETS A FAIL

[sunshine2163.livejournal.com]

YOU GET A FAIL
SHE GETS A FAIL
EVERYONE GETS A FAIL!!!!!!

[flumes.livejournal.com]

lol

[hellodee16.livejournal.com]

pfft, no thank you to that album cover then.
it was irresponsible to leave a captionless photo like that. why didn't he choose a photo of his white or red face instead? or just none...
that was a really stupid move.

[sunshine2163.livejournal.com]

lol I told someone this was going to happen. he was doing it for his "album" lol right......

[45s.livejournal.com]

Ikr?! How fucking convenient!

[spread.livejournal.com]

He has black friends & black fans tho...
Hyung didn't mean it~

[45s.livejournal.com]

Lol but this clown ass could have just put a 2word caption to avoid misinterpretation. Like "big news" or something.

Way to spin negative press to tell us of the next fail album tho. Ugh

(And a huge LOL at all of you saying it was a mask)

[frantastic.livejournal.com]

(And a huge LOL at all of you saying it was a mask)

ikr! tho the Nightcrawler cosplay excuse was my favourite

[heartsolid.livejournal.com]

lol naega please.

[heartsolid.livejournal.com]

I'm sure his PR folk breathed a collective sigh of relief that GD was smart enough to not give a pic description. Now they can spin this however they please.

But I honestly think some ppl had it spot on; the face paint started off as one thing and GD took it and ran with it and gave it an ambiguous (/dumbass) meaning.he knew what he was doing.

Innocent or not, it wasn't wise nor cool - esp considering his and some of his labelmates BG.

[redhandedjilll.livejournal.com]

You mean the internet blew something out of proportion? I'm shocked.

I know he's done some shit in the past and he should get all the rage and upset in the world for it, but I thought this whole situation was ridiculous, especially from a journalistic stand-point. The way media will just grab onto the faintest of straws for a story is eye-roll inducing. He never gave any real indication that he was attempting some kind of Trayvon homage, but it got tossed around like a stated fact.

[redhandedjilll.livejournal.com]

Mind you, it was dumb to post the image in the first place. I just don't think anyone was right in this situation.

[greeds.livejournal.com]

This even got an LA time article, the comments were hilarious tbh.

Anyways, GD was stupid and wrong, the world is round, sky is blue, etc. The end.

[heartsolid.livejournal.com]

Link?

[frantastic.livejournal.com]

oh

[e-bone (from livejournal.com)]

I wanna puke all over Spin for linking the original photo to Trayvon. Agitprop if you ask me.

Oh, right, the pic. Dumb as fck, GD. You took an L with this, homie, you took an L. Sorry.

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

"I wanna puke all over Spin for linking the original photo to Trayvon"

Actually, comments on Omona and ONTD did that

[zutterwacke.livejournal.com]

well whatever it is, and it was by all means stupid, I think it's good he got flak for it on a pretty internatiol level. him and his reps had to issue a statement and probably also learn about blackface, instead of stuff like that continuing to be seen as acceptable and not getting the (negative) attention it deserves and

[unlickdbearwhlp.livejournal.com]

I agree with this. Now we know they for damn sure know what blackface is, and how people feel about it, so the non-American ignorance is no longer an excuse, thin as it was before.

[porcupinegloves.livejournal.com]

lol this statement changes literally nothing, thank you

[hisjulliet.livejournal.com]

then why did he feel the need to put his shirt over his head to resemble a hoodie when he was only showing off the colors~ for his album~

lol

please

[2ne3rd.livejournal.com]

Honestly the whole "face paint" cover does seem like something he'd do....
I'm glad I waited before passing judgment.

[luvey.livejournal.com]

even with the context now added. it was still stupid of him to post it without any other caption. personally, even if it wasn't intended as blackface, he knew it would get some kind of hype.

although some friends of mine were upset he got put on blast, i was happy. even if i felt uncomfy with the picture and didn't think it was outright blackface....it didn't feel right. having him put on blast goes to show, yes what you do is being watched outside of Korea.

[e-bone (from livejournal.com)]

IA. I was ready to give him the benefit of the doubt (YG's history notwithstanding) but the publicity team's comments just look like damage control now. This needed to happen.

[zutterwacke.livejournal.com]

ia and

he wouldn't have a career if it weren't for African American culture

this so much

[lovejae23.livejournal.com]

when will they understand that the context and intention behind a black face doesn't really matter when you're doing a black face -_-

[annhh.livejournal.com]

mte

[luvey.livejournal.com]

Hey Omona, remember that blackface post you did for the last incidence....now is a great time to send it to the LA Times and Spin writers who handled the GD article. Its a good time to showcase the history of Kpop and blackface and why they need, not just GD, to be put on alert.

[heartsolid.livejournal.com]

I think that may be a good idea.

[miwa201.livejournal.com]

whatever. i hope he crashes and burns soon. i still think he says the n word in private considering the people he hangs out with. he claims to respect african-american culture but he doesn't know anything about it

[ceecile.livejournal.com]

But this doesn't sound like they understand that blackface is wrong. They're just clarifying that he didn't mean it as a Trayvon Martin homage. They're not apologizing or anything.

Curious though, do you think he even knew about Trayvon Martin? Because it hasn't been in the news where I live and I only know of it because I follow US news a bit.

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

It was in the news though
TF1, france television and a few newspaper had articles about it

[miwa201.livejournal.com]

oh and the guardian also covered it: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/aug/01/k-pop-g-dragon-trayvon-martin-controversy

this comment is pretty sad, but also not surprising:
I lived in Korea for a while. This doesn't surprise me, nor does it offend me. The country consumes a lot of American culture while remaining totally removed from the substance of it and the level of awareness about racism toward black people is quite naive. We're talking about an almost totally homogeneous country.
A school production of Hairspray I saw used black face. After a the initial shock of seeing it, it stopped bothering me. I know my friend who was in it was mortified to learn that this was offensive to some. Her favourite singers are black and she and the cast wanted to honour that as well as engage with the racial storyline. To her it was the same as playing a geisha and painting your face stark white.
Koreans I met were really curious about heterogeneity and non-white races. I am black and have afro hair some of the time. I had elderly people touch my hair while I was standing in public places and children stop open mouthed in supermarkets (one little girl in a supermarket stopped in front of me turned and ran away, she then returned hand in hand with her brother who also stood open mouthed looking at me. Their parents were so embarrassed, but it was actually quite cute and funny like you would believe). In Korea as a Black British person I was met with curiosity, wonder and real appreciation mostly. I mean who would have a problem walking past a group of teenagers and hearing them whisper "Wow!"
There is racism in Korea, serious prejudice. Most of what I witnessed was toward Americans - who were assumed to be rude, sexually promiscuous and stupid - and towards other Asians who are judged very heavily on appearance and status.

[45s.livejournal.com]

"The country consumes a lot of American culture while remaining totally removed from the substance of it "

yeppppppppppppppppp and it's really the US's responsibility to change that perception but they won't bother

this is why i don't get koreans (who have never met a black person or that interacts with blk ppl extensively) who think all black ppl are primitive and thuggish yet don't question the fact that the same media they're getting this message from is the same one depicting them equally as bad.

[yolleh.livejournal.com]

Wow at the way this has blown up!
I definitely think the Trayvon angle is still reaching but I'm glad at least it's got to the level where his rep has had to step in. Now, if we could get some minority studies classes for them or something, that would be wonderful.

[cordyceps.livejournal.com]

ia with this. The Trayvon part of it was a huge reach (and ppl here and in ONTD sensationalized the shit out of it), but the fact that it did get attention from YG is promising.

[atenais-pala.livejournal.com]

Of course the history behind the "blackface" it's a shame, but people in America have to stop thinking that the world spins around them.

Not everybody in this planet does things to offend you and harm you. The huge drama behind GD's Instragram shows it just fine.

[miwa201.livejournal.com]

except it's not only americans who find it offensive? i saw several black british people on twitter getting offended

[candycrush808.livejournal.com]

IKR? Makes perfect sense. *eyeroll*