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

[xbriyeon.livejournal.com]

institutionalized racism = oppresses POC (people of colour, aka minorities/not white people) --> leads to intergenerational reproduction of inequality (ie. who's going to be more likely to be hired despite having the same credentials? a black man or a white man? who's more likely to be let off for shooting someone? a poc shooting a white person? or a white person shooting a black person? and racial profiling, etc etc)

so when I say that "reverse racism" or racism towards white people doesn't exist, I mean as in the definition of racism that puts others at a disadvantage like the points I mentioned above. which doesn't happen. when "white racism" occurs, all that happens is some hurt feelings. boohoo. they still maintain the same level of superiority in society that they've always had.

[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.

[opd-top.livejournal.com]

Racism is not equivalent to discrimination, by the way.

(http://imgur.com/ybptLOK)

[klauses.livejournal.com]

What is this comment? That sentence is accurate and correct.

[shineebambi.livejournal.com]

*edit* okay u said further in the post you are from the US where we as white people have so much privilege coming out our ass its not funny so ill just go over a few cause i dont have time to go into all the reasons you will never face racism in america

1)if you end up homeless or really really poor most people will feel pity for you or will assume something bad happened to you that put you there. You will be more likely to move out of that poverty level not only quicker but with less long terms affects on jobs and housing available to you. IF a PoC is in the same situation its because they are lazy and want to live off the system. people will say things like if they wanted to they could get a good or "real" job but they are lazy its their own fault they are so poor. That and if they ever do get out of that poverty level it will affect what jobs they can get or their housing because land lords will not give them the benefit of the doubt and tell them no so they end up in crappy conditions with higher rents for less.

2)im assuming you are a girl because most members are but you want to know who benifits more then any other group from affirmative action in the US? its white women who need the help far less then any other group realistically but we are the easiest for the poor white men to stomach so we get the jobs we get the better colleges we get to have a better chance of getting a higher paid job. Yes on average women get paid 77C on the dollar to a man but white women pull up that average dramatically because a black women makes roughly 64 cents on the dollar compared to men and latinas make 55 cents.

3)as a white person if you get accused of a crime you get the benfit of the doubt PoC rarely get that. I mean look at NYC now stop and random frisk law guess who gets stopped the most(it certainly isnt white people. OR look at this case where a man shot and murdered a child and instead of getting questioned and arrested they when in and searched the dead boys house and watched as the white mans family took shit out of his house with out stopping them even tho he had just shoot a middle schooler in front of his mother and spent several hours interrogating her instead before finally arresting the neighbor.http://www.blackyouthproject.com/2012/06/another-unarmed-black-youth-shot-killed-darius-simmons-was-only-13-years-old/

please stop acting like we even feel anything close to what PoC feel its really just ignorance at its highest level

[itskimbitches.livejournal.com]

Jesus take the wheel with u

[shineebambi.livejournal.com]

if all you can say is that you dont want to follow statistics which are designed to give information on a large group as a whole when individual analysis as a whole is impossible i dont know what to say to you. I mean science is good enough for you to not question things that cant be proven without any doubts like evolution or gravity but stats on racism oh no I HAD A BLACK PERSON CALL ME A CRACKER RACISM EXISTS like just stop

[xbriyeon.livejournal.com]

yep, millions of black slaves were enslaved back then but that doesn't prove that every black person has experienced racism before or continues to now. they're just ~numbers~ after all. of course they don't reflect EVERYONE'S exact experience. but they do reflect the majority of what happens on a day-to-day basis, and excusing it as a "one-off case" or something that doesn't happen to everyone but clearly as the statistics have pointed out, happen to the majority of non-white people far more than it ever does to white people. because who is the one who always has the most power/privilege in the world without trying? upper middle-class white people. If a white English-speaking person went to Japan or Korea or pretty much any other country where the main language is not English, they are STILL bound to find people who know a bit of English or have been taught some in school. because it is the predominant language through assimilation and years of colonization. that in itself, is a privilege that most POC naturally don't get. If a Japanese or Korean person came over to the States or England or idek, Brazil, or Turkey, and asked a stranger who probably didn't speak Japanese or Korean, for directions, which language would they most likely ask in? English. they don't get the privilege of assuming that they'll probably find someone who knows their language. That in itself, is one of MANY advantages that white people will still always have, even if they go abroad to a foreign country where they would be considered the "minority".

And uhh, regarding the textbook definition of racism.. according to the first one I picked off of dictionary.com even:

rac·ism [rey-siz-uhm] Show IPA
noun
1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3. hatred or intolerance of another race or other races. --> being the most GENERALIZED explanation of what racism is.

so eg. a policy/doctrine such as how 100 years ago, I wouldn't have been able to live in Canada without paying a tax for being Chinese. have there ever been any other policies similar to this that have ever really discriminated against white people to this extent? Perhaps. But when you look at the numbers, when you look at history and how things "seem" to have changed now and yet still haven't, who are the ones that face deportation, who face profiling, who are the most disadvantaged naturally even if they have the same credentials as a non-POC? the minorities. It's the same as women earning ~$0.70 to every $1 a man makes, DESPITE HAVING THE SAME CREDENTIALS. Another type of privilege that parallels (or can be combined with) white privilege, aka white privilege.

[shineebambi.livejournal.com]

ugh whites have a ton of privileges in japan and korea and for the most part get treated like gods or incredibly well.

[opd-top.livejournal.com]

Pretty sure that applies everywhere else too.

[shineebambi.livejournal.com]

for sure the only place ive even seen even a tiny hint of an arguement that whites dont have this overwhelming amount of prividge is in south africa where people are supposedly targeting white farmers to murder them to take their lands but i dont know enough about the situation to really comment on it but she lives in the US like no you have never experienced anything at all like racism in your life

[itskimbitches.livejournal.com]

It is impossible to be racist a against white ppl. You can discriminate against them but no not racist. Racism is the ideology that one race is greater than another and precedent shows that the white race has institutionalized white supremecy just about everywhere. "If you haven't seen it does it exist"? That's bullshit because some ppl haven't seen snow, some ppl are blind and white ppl are born with this innate privilege that comes from centuries of oppressing other races. Priviledge is not equivalent to majority. A white person is bound to receive respect in any country solely on the Color of their skin not the context of their character and u can not say that about any other race, that's privilege . Any "racism" against a white person by a poc is a response to the oppression they receive by society which is affected by the white view.

[uledy.livejournal.com]

I have as little opportunities as the POC around me, so whenever someone says 'white privilege' I do have to chuckle. It's really more appropriate to say 'rich person privilege' but it's easier to pin it on all whites because a lot of them had a head start historically.

No. In terms of job opportunities, access to shelters, encounters with the police and the legal system, fair hearings for public benefits, and class mobility, poor White people STILL have an advantage over poor POC simply from the fact of being White. So it's looking like your privilege is more than just an inconvenient "societal expectation", huh?

[shineebambi.livejournal.com]

yes discrimination happens to white people but lets be honest most of it is based of the fact that for centuries all we did was oppress and destroy what wasnt white so its not exactly unjustified.

and i understand that their is less opportunities for those in really poor areas believe me im am by no means rich or even middle class and i have definitely felt the pinch of being in a lower social class but i also still have more privileged then those around me those of a simular class that are PoC. No one is saying that white people dont face hardships but i know if someone finds out im poor they are more likely to be understanding and see that im "trying to better myself" PoC dont get taht same benifit of the doubt most of the time

[enpantoufles.livejournal.com]

White privilege doesn't mean you're rich

You're talking about class privilege