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

[asnindie.livejournal.com]

Seriously who gave him the advice to read that book. Read some books from African American authors.

[demonic-spazz.livejournal.com]

Lol, thank you!

[uledy.livejournal.com]

Missing the point.

Intention means shit if it's still harmful.

And until YG stops stealing from my people and begging for my money- they're accountable to me. It's not unreasonable to hold them to the standard of the community they fap so hard to.

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

omg I could totally picture Taeyang doing that

[stephantasm.livejournal.com]

Tone policing is really the easiest way to kill a conversation. I legit gave a reason why people love to play the "I'm not from __ so whatever" card and I'm just being aggressive? Why did I even waste my time responding to you if "fuck" will just be too much for your soft heart to handle? Lmao that is the most condescending thing to even say, ~excuse me you said fuck a few times let me ignore everything you said to just reiterate that I'm not offended so who cares~ like ok.

[opd-top.livejournal.com]

*jumps in* Octavia E. Butler would be a good start. *jumps out*

[10135.livejournal.com]

YEP

[stephantasm.livejournal.com]

boo hoo?

[10135.livejournal.com]

Figures it would be because of that, smfh.

[mearii87.livejournal.com]

at least yg addressed it. it's more than anyone in korea has ever done. i'm taking this as a positive step. shit doesn't change over night just because international fans whine about it. it will take time to change and it's important that we recognize that.

[shineebambi.livejournal.com]

where do you live? there are some places where whites dont have this in your face overwhelming privileged but no matter where you are white people still have a ton of privileges that no poc will ever have to ignore that is both ignorant and minimizing to poc who do face racism on a daily basis.

[jrt131n.livejournal.com]

Sad to say this, but I think 99.9999999992% of some of them probably think that what they see from Hip Hop is true about African American culture.

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

there you go with your hostile aggressive comment on comment violence

[asnindie.livejournal.com]

Alice Walker, Toni Morrison. Plenty of authors.

Maybe even To Kill a Mocking Bird.

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

thank you

[luvey.livejournal.com]

i am afraid it is going to get lost in the comments. would it be out of Omona's rules (although you are the rule maker lol) to make a separate post to alert peeps to tweet it to them.

[in-noctem.livejournal.com]

It was especially hilarious because I saw a few VIP comments about how their fanbase is bigger and they can take on EXO lmao I would LOVE to see this happen.

[asnindie.livejournal.com]

Taking a critical look=/=hating

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

wow I hope people who attend record any fandom wars that break out so we can laugh our asses off

[in-noctem.livejournal.com]

Idk why but I'm still surprised whenever I see comments here in the vein of "He didn't know", "haters should stop jumping to conclusions" and "this isn't an issue in Korea so obviously he wouldn't know/cultural differences". The way I see it you're just excusing their stupidity and ignorance.

[e-bone (from livejournal.com)]

LMAO I still remember that post. Those were the good times...

See guys, it's all good since YG already paid their yearly hood pass membership fees :D

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

Please not To Kill a Mocking Bird. Read I know why the caged bird sings, if he wants a book with bird in the title.

[reelrecnizereel.livejournal.com]

I just got it LMFAOOO

[imienazwisko.livejournal.com]

aww thanks

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

He should read W.E.B. Dubois but no Booker T. Washington