Sam Okyere made to apologize for speaking out on Blackface.

[jazzygyu.livejournal.com]

On August 6th, Sam Okyere posted on his Instagram expressing his disappointment with a Blackface Skit done by Uijeongbu High School students.

Full message-

Many Knetizens took offense to Sams post calling him a hypocrite as he has pulled his eyes back on an episode of "Abnormal Summit" back in 2015.

They are also pointing out the difference in his wording between his English response and Korean response and the hash tags he used claiming he just wanted “to make Korea look bad” and that he should be grateful to Koreans for his career. The fact that the original creators of the meme liked their cosplay has also given knetizens a reason to discredit Sam.

The next day Sam issues a public apology (which has since been deleted)

Basically apologizing for the hashtags he used, posting the photo of the Korean students, and the misunderstanding over the word “educate”.
My personal thoughts on this-
1) As a black person whenever we are not “nice enough” when expressing our disappointment about racism it backfires. Black people never can show anger without being told we are being aggressive even if we have every right to be angry. Sam wasn’t nice enough after he expressed numerous times nicely why racism and blackface is wrong.
2) The only thing he should be apologizing for is for pulling his eyes back and nothing else. He was not wrong in criticizing those high school students and the fact that I’ve seen multiple people say Korea isn’t like America without taking into account that: 1) Sam is not American and *correction has never lived in America. 2) Is from Ghana like the men in that video but also has a different experience from those men because he deals with seeing black face both on TV and in real life regularly in Korea. Thus, his opinion on this matter should have held the most weight. Why some commenters claimed he is not in the position to teach is beyond me when he is from Ghana living in Korea and can speak the language.
3)Lost in translations: A lot of commenters seem to take offense to the word "educate". I feel like that is a word that is commonly used when discussing racism. Black people are told all the time that instead of expecting people to know what is offensive we should trying educating or teaching. It wasn’t meant to call Koreans dumb but a lot of Korean people seem to be taking it that way. At the end of day it just feels like they don’t want to learn considering most commenters where bluntly telling Sam to “go back to your country”.
4) The Korean students photo was already posted online before Sam posted it expressing his issue with them doing blackface.
Final thoughts I'm really worried he will lose his career over this which really shows how far Korea still has to go when it comes to foreigners, especially black foreigners. I hope he will be okay through all of this. The fact that all of the Korean celebrities that posted about BLM have nothing to say about this speaks volumes. If you care about black lives the first step is making sure black people in your own communities feel safe and heard. This man was silenced for speaking out.
-I've only ever posted once on this site so I apologize if this was kind of all over the place. I just feel like not enough people are talking about this.



Source:notnetizenbuzz Sam's Instagram koreaherald.com

Comments

[suehoe.livejournal.com]

This is so frustrating that I don’t know where to begin

[greasetastic-x.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I question why I'm a black kpop fan. It gets very tiring.

[jazzygyu.livejournal.com]

Me too. I’m honestly not sure I’ll be supporting the industry anymore if he ends up blacklisted or dropped from his company.

[aeries-amethyst.livejournal.com]

Same, it's like every day there is something offensive that is done and it is so exhausting to keep up with everything. I question how I am to support an industry that profits off of black culture yet hates black people.

[greasetastic-x.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the same way the american music/entertainment industry profits off of black people while hating them ://// i wish it was just a South Korean issue but literally almost every where you turn there's anti-blackness. It is just sad

[aeries-amethyst.livejournal.com]

And that's the next problem, there are so many industries that profit off of black people who will never give them the respect they deserve or even acknowledgement. It's infuriating how rampant anti-blackness is and yet they idolize black culture. How does that even make sense? It is so backwards and depressing.

[jazzygyu.livejournal.com]

Yeah but I can support black artist in the American industry...I rather do that at this point. Why should I pay to have my culture sold back to me in korean if this is how it’s gonna be.

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

OP I think your post is great.

Everyone arguing that the photo isn't offensive is missing the point that painting their faces brown is the problem. Had they just used the clothes and not painted their faces, we wouldn't be having this conversation and no one would be mad. He had every right to speak up and it's demoralizing that he had to apologize.

The fact that all of the Korean celebrities that posted about BLM have nothing to say about this speaks volumes. If you care about black lives the first step is making sure black people in your own communities feel safe and heard. This man was silenced for speaking out.

A lot of people think "as long as we're not murdering black people in the street, we're better than the U.S.", which is an extremely low standard. It's easier to criticize other societies than to look at yourself (people do this in the U.S., too, calling out other countries for human rights abuses when we have a lot going on here, too).

[daynr.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this post, I had seen references but didn't know many details. The eyes thing, I hope he has apologized and shown his own growth in the 5 years. Even if he hasn't, wrongs don't cancel out and he can still be right about the black face. Him not being a perfect does not diminish his point, at all.

If the Korean language word nuance is basically similar to educate ..... education =/ intelligent. We all need more education, across the board, and if someone is too Trumpian to be willing to hear that, well, 🖕.

[vintage-boom.livejournal.com]

This is an incredibly frustrating situation especially the backlash he's receiving because it's focusing on how the message was conveyed instead of reflecting on the actual problem being talked about. Deflection deflection deflection.

It's...something that a lot of netizens can identify Sam's actions on Abnormal Summit as inappropriate/racist but can't also understand why blackface is inappropriate/racist? Willful ignorance?

As an aside, this part > 1) Sam is not American and has never been to America.

He actually spoke recently about his experiences visiting the US as a black man as well as racism in Korea. It's worth listening to the video if anyone hasn't to gauge his understanding of Black Americans experience with racism vs African experience with racism both in Korea and in the US. Idt he has an in-depth understanding of American race politics (which like, not expecting him to since he's only visited a couple times) so he was maybe not the best choice to speak too much on George Floyd's death but it was a good discussion. The reactions from netizens feels similar to the reaction the host had here when after Sam said specific examples of racism he and his Black friends have experienced there the host was just incredulous "no way, really here?!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FQNAiw1pUM

SK has a long way to go in terms of social change and understanding cultural differences.

[jazzygyu.livejournal.com]

Oh okay I didn’t realize that, I had read somewhere that he hadn’t been to America but maybe they meant he has never lived in America. Thanks for letting me know! I’ll definitely check out what he has to say!

[vintage-boom.livejournal.com]

Yea he's definitely never lived there. From what he said in the vid he'd only been on vacation and yet still had a run in with the police so he has some understanding of what its like engaging with them vs korean police and I think he talks about that a bit

[tifa.livejournal.com]

i remember watching his asian boss interview and what i hate is that there is so much weight on him to be the emotional labor for korean people. he kept saying "i need to do this for things to change, i need to do that for things to change" but there was little to no responsibility on citizens to teach themselves not to be antiblack. i felt like that went over the interviewer's head—i'm not sure if he was looking for validation or if he genuinely just wanted to let sam okyere speak without talking over him. idk.

[radowan.livejournal.com]

I should not have read those comments because "who are you to educate Koreans" is making my fucking blood boil.

[em-cavey.livejournal.com]

This whole situation is so infuriating and thanks for compiling it, OP.

As someone living in Korea there's a lot to love here but it's a deeply, and very proudly, homogenous country and racism/xenophobia are bone-deep problems and probably always will be to some extent

The best I can say is that I doubt he'll ultimately have much problem continuing his career here, if he still wants one. The people willing to watch him on TV are probably mostly different from the people attacking him online, who likely resented his presence in the media in the first place and are now jumping on their chance to "put him in his place"

Ugh this is all so frustrating

[in-noctem.livejournal.com]

I think seeing the 10k upvotes on netizen comments really surprised me because yeah, netizen comments aren’t representative of a whole country but the fact that such a large portion of people agree with the sentiment that he should leave Korea etc makes me wonder how this will affect his career

[yakuniku-8.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it's just a few netizens or if it's a general view. I hope it won't harm him too much because - even if he is not perfect - it's nice to see him on korean medias.

I wasn't shocked to read the word "educate" on his post but after reading OP's comment I realised that it's not something people would say in my language. It seems that in english it also has the meaning of improving yourself but if I translate it, I see an old person scolding kids and saying they don't have manners. If it's not used by the child's parents, it has a negative meaning and everybody would say who are you to tell me what to do? And for that reason, I would never say that I will "educate myself" in my language. I would say that I will get more information and learn. It's not strange to read it in english, especially since it's used a lot on that topic but it could be misunderstood if it's translated literally by someone who learnt english at school and doesn't go this kind of forums or doesn't read the news in english. Moreover, the fact that he didn't put the same hashtags in korean and in english could play a part.
Anyway, it's just small thoughts which could explain why some Koreans reacted that way but it's quite far from the real topic. It's a pity that the discussion stopped because of his wording.

[in-noctem.livejournal.com]

And literally who are Koreans to decide what is considered racist towards Blacks or what the ‘intention’ was behind their acts? And always with the “Well ___ said it’s ok so why should you find it racist.”

I’ve not been to Korea but hearing my friends’ experiences (most of them wear hijabs) being laughed at by locals when they dress up in hanboks at the palaces, or just general staring/openly glaring makes me question our support for kpop/the general K scene since they’re known for belittling SEAsians as well.

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

Koreans making pétition for someone to leave their country gives a very bad taste and just exemplifies even more what he said.

I'm done with SK ans kpop. The mysoginy, the way they treat their youth, the mental problems that no one cares about, the racism within the netizens. I'm done. I'm juste done with this industry. It's not worth it in the end.

[a-suitcase.livejournal.com]

This is aggravating and depressing. He should not have been made to apologise.

[apori.livejournal.com]

This is violence. The second part of terrorizing someone into apologizing when they weren't wrong... I don't have the words.

And great point OP about k-celebs who pretended to give a shit about BLM. They don't and we kind of knew, but now they confirmed it.

[hoursnow.livejournal.com]

😒

poor guy, this must be awful to experience firsthand

i wish some korean celebs would voice their support

[theweebdream.livejournal.com]

Follow an account on Twitter that posts knetizens replies and made the mistake of reading replies about this situation and it’s just so fucking stupid. And scary. They had the audacity to go “well what about whitening creams” like ???? It’s funny bc they’ll go abroad and face racism and then cry like a two year old but it’s ok for them to be racist in their own homogeneous country to minorities :) is fucking stupid

[dior-chic.livejournal.com]

Yea that’s exactly what’s infuriating- it definitely puts the message out there that being racist is ok - just don’t be racist to me! So you know how hurtful it can be - but as long as you’re not on the receiving end you good? Fuck that. And we make absolutely progress with that stupid mindset. Nothing comes from looking out for ourself alone.

[dior-chic.livejournal.com]

‘ The fact that all of the Korean celebrities that posted about BLM have nothing to say about this speaks volumes. If you care about black lives the first step is making sure black people in your own communities feel safe and heard. This man was silenced for speaking out.’

Yes!!!! It really just empty lip service as usual.

This whole situation is really disgusting. Even more infuriating at plenty in Korea take soooooo much from other cultures for their music and entertainment.

[andra479.livejournal.com]

I'm only jumping in to say that on that screenshot of him from Abnormal Summit, the subtitles in Korean read as "come back/comeback Ghana zombie". Now I have no idea how the actual scene played out in that episode of the show and what was his reasoning for portraying a zombie with his eyes pulled back, but to me it seems that is what he was doing, not mocking Asians on purpose. This is just based on that one screenshot, the subtitles might be totally off from his actions, so I might be totally wrong as well.

[thebloomroom.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is insane. This entire industry is built off of copying black people so it's really just hmm. SK is quick to recognize racism against them but they're mute when they perpetuate that same behavior towards anyone with an ounce of melanin.

[rolezeira.livejournal.com]

Where are the Korean/White self-proclaimed allies now??? Fucking do something, stand up for Sam!! This is disgusting, I can't even elaborate any thing more complex about it... just blatant racism.

Copy & Pasting What I Said on ONTD

[aeries-amethyst.livejournal.com]

The audacity of these racist assholes to demand that Sam apologize when they're the ones in the wrong for continuing to support the use of blackface is downright infuriating! You really going to say that a black man who has every right to be offended is not the kind of person who should be telling you that your racist actions are offensive?! So if he can't educate you, then who has the authority to educate you? Because these people obviously refuse to educate themselves and would love nothing more than continue to be blissfully ignorant. Then they bring up his past scandal as if that somehow excuses this situation - two wrongs don't make a right - if you can recognize that what he did in the past was racist, then you can recognize that blackface is also very much racist. This is absolutely ridiculous. Sam should not have had to apologize for this. The level of hate and criticism he's getting for this is sickening.

Yet of course, kpop will continue to rip off black culture without any regards for being respectful to black people. Can't believe it was only a few months ago where you had actual kcelebs and netizens defending BLM, but alas, where are they now? I guess it was just lip service for them. These people really must think it was a fad and that it's over and done with since they made one tiny contribution or shared a few posts. Clearly some people will never change and never be bothered enough to care. It's because of this why matters like this will continue to get swept under the rug and racism will continue. Black people really can't win when the whole world is against us - this is the sad reality.

[myungung.livejournal.com]

pretty disappointing, but yet not really surprised. still don't understand why people continue to be fooled by obfuscation, and to miss the point of it every time.

[evilcoc0nut.livejournal.com]

Once again, I'm just really confused at why Koreans are so obsessed with blackface and defending it so strongly like they do