[NB] Sam Okyere speaks out about Uijeongbu High's blackface parody

[honeyhoney]

As If they couldn't be more ignorant...

Sam Okyere speaks out about Uijeongbu High's blackface parody

Article: Uijeongbu High's coffin dance blackface controversy... Sam Okyere "It's offensive"

Source: Chosun Ilbo via Naver

1. [+9,189, -800] I mean, the intention was never to make fun of the dance. It was just a meme that they parodied for their graduation photos. I'm amazed that this has become so controversial.

2. [+4,662, -487] In his English post, Okyere talks about how he needs to "educate" the Koreans enough to understand that this is racist but who you are you to educate the Koreans or not?

3. [+2,297, -157] Then are people who do whiteface racist against white people?

4. [+2,193, -467] Just go back to your country

5. [+1,524, -107] Sam clearly doesn't want to see this as just a parody

6. [+1,422, -20] Sam was wrong to put the faces of these kids up on his account with 1.9 million followers and direct all the criticism towards them. The only thing the kids did wrong is that they didn't know what blackface is but now he's cemented them on the internet and made everyone think that Koreans are racist. It's ridiculous. There was never the intention to put down black people. It was just a cosplay that I heard even the people of the meme are enjoying.

7. [+611, -11] Sam Okyere is actually putting down Koreans with his English post, talking about how it's difficult to educate Koreans or whatever. Then go back to Ghana.

8. [+609, -15] Meanwhile black people are super racist to Asians too ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

9. [+498, -7] What's funny is that the coffin dance leader posted a thank you note on Instagram for parodying him

 

Source: Naver

1. [+4,048, -314] The man of the meme himself said it was okay but Sam Okyere is the one making a fuss, putting up the faces of these children right on his Instagram too ㅋㅋㅋ

2. [+2,962, -317] Objectively speaking, Okyere is overreacting ㅋ

3. [+2,264, -112] At this rate... is wearing blonde wigs racist too?! This was such a hit meme and the kids parodied it as is... the fact that people are trying to push them as racists just makes me question their own preconceived bias about the color of skin.

4. [+1,327, -310] Maybe this is the same thing as others slanting their eyes? I can see how it'd be offensive if someone tried to cosplay as Asian by painting their skin yellow.

5. [+1,043, -124] I saw the coffin dance on TV not too long ago and laughed along at how their custom was to laugh at funerals. I think the students just wanted to copy along. It's an overreaction to push them as racists and find offense to it~

6. [+621, -22] Remember when Okyere slanted his eyes on 'Abnormal Summit'?

'[Exclusive] Sam Okyere criticizes 'black parody' while he himself was under controversy for 'slanted eyes'

7. [+529, -24] It's not like the kids painted their faces completely black to specifically put black people down. It's obvious they attempted to cosplay to look as similarly to the meme as possible. I honestly don't understand why this is problematic. Even the meme himself said this was funny. Is it still racist when people paint themselves white to parody white people?

8. [+455, -33] The intention is what's important here... these kids didn't put on this costume to put down black people...

 

 

Edited August 6, 2020 by honeyhoney

[yoodle]

"WHITEFACE". IS NOT. THE SAME. AS BLACKFACE. IT DOESN'T. EXIST.

 

[starsocks]

Ignorance is no longer an excuse when you literally have someone explaining to you why it's wrong

If you're still going to defend it after that then that's on you

[Aryu]

I am not surprised at any of this. I'm so sad for Sam that he is being told to "go home". He puts so much effort into his life in Korea, then sees his race as a costume and gets blamed for speaking up.

 

Well of course the average Korean won't understand. But just wait until they go over to the US or the West in general and find out about yellow face and all that. Then, all of a sudden, another country they are not native to needs to "reflect". Yea ok sure, hypocrite.

[rananicolee]

Someone is explaining why this is wrong but they don’t care. We can’t keep saying “well we need to educate them”. They don’t care. You can keep informing someone of what is wrong and they won’t get it because, again, they don’t care. 

[namidaone]

Those blackface students allowed others  to photograph them in a public setting.
Their eyes were covered with shades too so their identities aren't completely exposed.  
so idt Sam was wrong for showing that pic in his ig. 

Also just bc the one who made the coffin dance meme is ok with the parody, doesn't automatically mean the whole ethnic community where the coffin dance originated is ok with it.   
When it affects a community, they need permission fr the whole community. 
Something similar happened to a kpop grp before, and that grp deservedly got flack for it until they apologized.  
So these students and the netizens supporting them don't have an excuse. 
 

[reiichi]

39 minutes ago, Aryu said:

But just wait until they go over to the US or the West in general and find out about yellow face and all that. Then, all of a sudden, another country they are not native to needs to "reflect". Yea ok sure, hypocrite.

Black people take offense at blackface because of the discrimination they've faced and are still facing everywhere in the world.

East Asians on the other hand, weren't enslaved or colonized by white people (EDIT : or at least not to the same extent), so the same kind of ignorant display of racism will most likely will be met with condescendance. Not really the same sentiment.

Edited August 6, 2020 by reiichi
see edit

[abra]

Several of these comments are worse than the original offence

[namidaone]

Quote

East Asians on the other hand, weren't enslaved or colonized by white people, so this kind of ignorant display of racism will most likely will be met with condescendance. Not really the same sentiment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_humiliation

[reiichi]

15 minutes ago, namidaone said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_humiliation

Okay, not "never", but you have to contrast that time period with 4 millennia of Chinese history where they're the most important power of the region (and that's indeed why they call it "humiliation").

[Zack Morris]

Their racism literally blows my mind. It's so bizarre knowing that a backwards mentality like this still exists in the 21st century

[KentasGlittery EyeMakeup]

This level of ignorance in the comments can't be called anything else but racism.

[namidaone]

31 minutes ago, reiichi said:

Okay, not "never", but you have to contrast that time period with 4 millennia of Chinese history where they're the most important power of the region (and that's indeed why they call it "humiliation").

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/jeremy-lin-maintaining-asian-american-pride-amid-rising-coronavirus-racism-n1189766 
Doesn't look like condescension is the "heavy heart" feeling that Jeremy Lin was experiencing abt anti-Asian racists in the US.  

[sakurahanabira]

I can't at the sheer stupidity and backwardness of these comments. An actual black person is telling you that what that high school is doing is offensive and they have the audacity to tell him that he's overreacting and to go back to his country? Unbelievable. It's such a contrast to the comments supporting him back when he spoke out against Hwang Hyun Hee's controversy. As one of the Knetizen comments on that thread says:

Quote

4. [+151, -5] For Sam Okyere, a black man himself, to call the gag 'frustrating', means that it doesn't matter what other races try to argue, it's offensive and that's that. You are not allowed to judge what is offensive or not offensive unless you are the target, just like how you are not allowed to deem albeist jokes not offensive without being the parent of a disabled child yourself or classist jokes not offensive without being the parent of poverty yourself. Sam Okyere took offense to it and that nullifies any argument that Hwang Hyun Hee-ssi could make in defense of her gag.

 

Edited August 6, 2020 by melancholic autumn

[blossoms]

Korea really is a lot more ignorant than I had thought

[sakurahanabira]

2 hours ago, Aryu said:

I am not surprised at any of this. I'm so sad for Sam that he is being told to "go home". He puts so much effort into his life in Korea, then sees his race as a costume and gets blamed for speaking up.

 

Well of course the average Korean won't understand. But just wait until they go over to the US or the West in general and find out about yellow face and all that. Then, all of a sudden, another country they are not native to needs to "reflect". Yea ok sure, hypocrite.

a few years ago when Sam spoke out against a comedian doing blackface, all of the Knetizen comments were in support of him (I posted a quote from one of them in my post above). Obviously those commenters and these commenters are different groups of people, but it's disappointing how he's getting hate for speaking out against blackface now. The majority of the commenters defending this are men in their 20s-40s (which, as of 2020, are Gen Xers to early Gen Zers) which goes to show that even the younger generation can be just as racist and ignorant as the older generation.

[Aryu]

3 hours ago, reiichi said:

Black people take offense at blackface because of the discrimination they've faced and are still facing everywhere in the world.

East Asians on the other hand, weren't enslaved or colonized by white people (EDIT : or at least not to the same extent), so the same kind of ignorant display of racism will most likely will be met with condescendance. Not really the same sentiment.

Well...there were the Japanese concentration camps, Chinese exclusion act (the opposite but nonetheless a racial targeting and othering), the century of humiliation that another mentioned - I know it's stupid to compare oppressions and racism so I am not trying to do that, but Asians certainly have faced some dire situations for their race/nationality.

Yellowface and blackface actually have a lot of similarities. They aren't the same, but both are/were used to caricature, make fun of, other, and use as masks for White actors playing POC. Just look at the yellowface in Breakfast at Tiffany's:

It's just gross. It's not the same as the whole minstrel history, but you'd think Koreans would show a bit more understanding if they knew what went on in other places where they are the target....

But I guess we can assume that they just don't know better  (they sure knew about it when Gigi had her racist scandal where she imitated Asian eyes...)

 

[reiichi]

1 minute ago, Aryu said:

Well...there were the Japanese concentration camps, Chinese exclusion act (the opposite but nonetheless a racial targeting and othering), the century of humiliation that another mentioned - I know it's stupid to compare oppressions and racism so I am not trying to do that, but Asians certainly have faced some dire situations for their race/nationality.

Yellowface and blackface actually have a lot of similarities. They aren't the same, but both are/were used to caricature, make fun of, other, and use as masks for White actors playing POC. Just look at the yellowface in Breakfast at Tiffany's:

 

  Hide contents

 

 

It's just gross. It's not the same as the whole minstrel history, but you'd think Koreans would show a bit more understanding if they knew what went on in other places where they are the target....

But I guess we can assume that they just don't know better  (they sure knew about it when Gigi had her racist scandal where she imitated Asian eyes...)

 

 

I think that the main difference is that East Asians are dominant cultures in their origin areas, and have mostly been occupied by their neighbors (much like what happened in Europe over time) while Africans were deported, called savages and colonized by Europeans for a good chunk of their history. African Americans are all the more sensitive that they arrived in the country as slaves, and are still largely vilified and othered.

Korea has a troubled history full of invasions, but these invasions were at the hands of other East Asian powers, not people with a different skin color and a completely alien culture. It was mostly about nationalism, not racism, and it can explain that Koreans don't really connect with AA experiences, even if they seem similar to an outside eye.

[Nev Schulman]

5 hours ago, honeyhoney said:

1. [+4,048, -314] The man of the meme himself said it was okay but Sam Okyere is the one making a fuss,

Ok but where? Where are the receipts 

[Elscian]

Who is he to educate you all? Hmm idk maybe...an actual BLACK PERSON  telling you what's offensive to them? 

Didn't some celebs get heavy backlash from yall for pulling their eyes? Explain why pulling your eyes are offensive then if this isn't.  

Edited August 6, 2020 by StanSatan

[Archer2006]

This is what I have been saying for YEARS. Korean people know when they are being racist period. They know that getting up when a black person sits next to and waving their hands in front of their noses as if the person smells is racist. They know that literally running across the street when they see a black person is racist. They know that refusing to stop for Black people needing taxis and picking up white people instead Is racist. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

[Archer2006]

And what they are doing to Sam is letting him know that he may be liked but will never be fully embraced. Cause when it comes down to it, people would rather protect their racism then admit to it. I mean Sam loves Korea. He is/was (not sure if he still is) an ambassador and look how he’s being treated the moment he calls out racist assholes. Oh and attacking him for posting the picture...... when the ORIGINAL article did the SAME thing is low and classless. They are just mad that this is blowing up and getting a ton of NEGATIVE exposure towards Koreans. If those brats didn’t want their faces out there then they shouldn’t have posted the pic in the first place. Or they could have put stickers on their faces. They CHOOSE to do this so they have to face the consequences for their actions. And complaining about him using English is sooooo tacky. He posted in both Korean and English. He can post in whatever language he fucking feels like. I’m so damm tired of racist assholes trying to Tone police black people. You-don’t-have-the-right full stop.

And for the last damm time, whiteface is NOT a thing. Just because 1 movie movie was made does not mean there is a history of white people being disenfranchised solely based on their skin color. Remember what blackface is and how it started. It literally existed because Hollywood didn’t want to put black faces on tv and in movies. They literally took black paint, doused it over their skin, wore cheap wigs, blacked out some of their teeth, and acted as though they were unintelligent. That’s how they promoted black people to the rest of the world. And some assholes think it’s okay to culture jack a precious FUNERAL tradition for a god damm photo op?!?! And people are supposed to be okay with it????? You can appreciate things without being assholes about it. 

Edited August 7, 2020 by Archer2006

[A Hamster Named Loneliness]

Once again, the ugly racists rear their heads. Funny how about 68% of the commenters are Korean males in their 30s, followed by those in their 40s and 20s. They probably all went into PC-bangs to type out these racist  and tone deaf comments, too. 

[holytaxidermybatman]

The only comment that got it was the one who said Koreans would be offended if a white person painted their skin yellow and slanted their eyes

 

I looked up Sam's scandal, and Koreans were offended that he pulled his eyes back during an "ugly face" competition, saying that the fact that he chose to use stereotypical Asian features was offensive. But somehow they can't grasp that painting your skin dark can be just as hurtful to black people? Smh

[Neopoli]

Notice how most of the comments are coming from Korean men?

I feel like they also looked for the downright WORST comments, because my. god. some of these are the worst I've seen from pann/nate/etc