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

[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.

[luvey.livejournal.com]

this. which is why i am happy it made the news and forced their reps to say something.

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

That's the only good thing coming out of this

[heartsolid.livejournal.com]

this.

[hisjulliet.livejournal.com]

this

[candycrush808.livejournal.com]

It's something.

[atenais-pala.livejournal.com]

"so the non-American ignorance is no longer an excuse".
I'm sorry, but this is so self-centered. The world is made of American and non-American?

[sisterjune.livejournal.com]

blackface is a practice that ORIGINATED in the US in the form of post slavery minstrel shows that were horrible racist caricatures of black people done for laughs/entertainment of white audiences. that's why its so heinously offensive. but because westerners esp Americans like to excuse oppars of not knowing about it, cause they are not american etc etc and thus dont know our long storied history re racism towards black americans (lol as if). so the point is this reaction PROVED that his being korean/not an american was not a factor in his ignorant actions. because he DOES know what blackface is, and that it IS offensive regardless of if he knows exactly why it is or the history behind it.

[atenais-pala.livejournal.com]

I know about the blackface expression. As you can see in my comment I'm not trying to defend him here, he has people to talk for him. I just find ironic how people in US think they're special and different from the world. Lots of people don't know about my country and our problems and I'm not being aggressive about it, telling that the whole world should know about us.

BTW, we have a story of slavery too and we have our own traumas.

[nandexdame.livejournal.com]

You're totally missing the point, which is cute.

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

Basically.

[zuluuluz.livejournal.com]

pretty much

[lilykt7.livejournal.com]

word, although it was never an excuse to begin with. If I saw anyone throw on yellow paint and squint their eyes on snl or some shit, it wouldn't matter that theres no major history behind making fun of asians in that context. It's still rude and hurtful and plain dumb. Like WHY? why do u need to do that. Omg so much side eyeing. It's such a backwards peasant level of entertainment.