[ SECRET POST #5154 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5154 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 38 secrets from Secret Submission Post #738.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

See, I'm not OP but here is my unasked-for take on it. Unlike everyone else I am not going to criticize OP for thinking that as more than once I was called out for voicing out opinions from my non-US-centric perspective. Coming from k-pop fandom, some of the controversies that we get in that sense are pitiful honestly. I will be talking about one type of cultural appropriation here as it's been in my mind since the Chaeyoung episode but please try and treat this as a metaphor for other types alright.

The Chaeyoung incident I refer to is one in which a k-pop "rapper" girl - a position every k-pop group has - wore multiple braids for one MV and that sparked a big controversy. Not dreadlocks. Blonde/lavender braids. I get people who were angry at the producers, as they probably did their research and knew what they were going for, didn't care and went for it anyway (but considering it's TWICE of the "I'm warning to myself" line I can't even be sure about it!). Anyway, I get explaining why they were angry about it (which most people didn't) boycotting, etc. What I don't get are: fans blaming the idols personally as if they're somehow racist because they enjoy wearing that, because to them it's just a "cool rapper aesthetic", and worse, fans blaming eachother for not getting where the other is coming from because they, too, are inserted in different cultures.

In k-pop some 18 year old """rapper""" South Korean kid wears SYNTHETIC CHINESE-MANUFACTURED KANEKALON RAINBOW DREADLOCKS to emulate whatever they saw on MTV with a dash of rainbow kpop hair and suddenly a lot of foreigners are jumping down their throats because that makes them ignorant of the suffering of black people somehow. Yes. They are ignorant of the suffering of black people - they barely learn it in school. Did you forget? They're Korean ; their ancestors didn't have black people for slaves lol. The reality of their ghettos isn't that of black people being marginalized so to them dreadlocks is little more than a "pop culture", "foreigners" thing. And it is most certainly NOT their fault that black people suffered in other cultures where they were slaves as they're 18 yo South Korean kids trying to emulate "cool black dudes" from TV/media (who happen to overpower them in terms of fame/money/success by a mile).

NO, these kids shouldn't be ignorant of whatever black people suffered in the West forever. But sometimes the very descendants of those white people who in short forced the rest of the world to be their slaves are now yelling at the descendants for being "mindless" of "their suffering". You may be less violent about it but your ethnocentric views aren't better than those of your ancestors. Of course I don't think we should be uncultured forever - hopefully we ALL learn as we mature! - all I'm saying is, well, isn't it great to focus on dumb shit to the detriment of everything else? I see a lot of people (online + in kpop) being ignorant about and culturally appropriative of, say, Arabs in this day and age and nobody complains but of course that couldn't be because rich Western nations are antiarabic there must be other reasons huh. Instead of addressing actual issues we rather keep punching the same keys. As if discussing racism could ever be "easy" but we are uncomfortable so we stick to discourse and pretend it is.

TL;DR: I am not asking everyone to be perfect and flawless and mindful of everything but I hope everyone will think twice and explain the history of their culture and the shitty ways in which it treated and still treats the marginalized group of people that this "cultural appropriation" they speak of is being appropriative of the next time a foreigner kid slips. If you ARE from said marginalized group of people I'll ask you to understand that they probably did not mean any harm and explain just how bad it is and how it hurt you, before cyberbullying some foreign kid who will most certainly remain ignorant of this foreign affair if you don't explain it (and trust me, I know how hard it is to find some pieces of information in our heavily biased modern web!). It's not that difficult to spare an URL or something. In regards to the cultural industry issues, to disregard fans' complaints is IMO not only assholey but also dumb of the companies (because offended people might not want to consume your product anymore?) and they should learn to be wary of the ways in which they can alienate their international fanbases but uh, dragging down idols or genuinely unknowing fans who are afraid of offending (I assume either black culture or a part of the Chinese population they/we don't know shit about)? Again: Why...?

Ugh, this was an actual TED Talk. Really sorry, but I hope this doesn't sound too controversial to some people who love jumping down other peoples' throats for no reason and maybe improve everyone's fandom experiences a bit.

[(Anonymous)]

"If you ARE from said marginalized group of people I'll ask you to understand that they probably did not mean any harm and explain just how bad it is and how it hurt you, before cyberbullying some foreign kid who will most certainly remain ignorant of this foreign affair if you don't explain it

You ever think people maybe get tired of having to explain this shit all the time?

[(Anonymous)]

I do. Which is why I asked for an URL. No need to go all TED Talk like I did.

[(Anonymous)]

I think you raise a lot of good points, anon, but sometimes you can explain why something is hurtful and people will double down on being shitty because they don’t want to accept that they’ve done something hurtful. And then there are people within the same group who don’t always agree on what’s cultural appropriation and what isn’t. I’m Mexican and I’m perfectly okay with people wearing a huipil (those long embroidered tunics, which incidentally make great summer dresses) as long as they’re wearing it as an outfit and not using it as a Halloween costume to be a generic Mexican person, but another person may not be okay with anybody outside of specific indigenous group wearing a huipil. And still another person won’t care if people wear it as a Halloween costume.

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT but I think that's one of the biggest issues with what I've seen for/against cultural appropriation.

While MOST (and I say most and not all) people would agree that wearing something in a disrespectful manner, or wearing/utilizing something that has significant cultural or religious value (ie a headdress/war bonnet) is a big no no, there's not much agreement even between people within a culture when it comes to things such as hairstyles, types of clothing (saris for example).

I can understand why people get confused, frustrated, and sometimes a little defensive when they're told, "You're X so you can't do/wear Y."

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT here and I TOTALLY agree. But my point was because shitty people exist, some people who are genuinely trying their best get told something rude or harmful (outright cyberbullying, even). This isn't very nice either, and I don't think it's working for the betterment of things. Having said this, agreed, people feel sad at different things, another reason why I suppose it's nice to explain to others. As part of many marginalized groups myself I try to do that IF they're willing to listen. If they double down on being shitty well (rightfully) fuck em.

[(Anonymous)]

This is one off topic TED talk considering this is very much not a black hairstyle. These aren't dreadlocks. This isn't a kpop rapper.

[(Anonymous)]

Someone just couldn't resist getting out their moral high ground soap box anyway.

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT here. Sorry, the Chaeyoung episode was on my mind after reading this secret because braids - and, again, some people didn't EVEN have a problem with it but some that did just told others off without further explanation.

[(Anonymous)]

Why should these kids care? It's completely irrelevant to their lives.

[(Anonymous)]

Because they want to learn with international fans instead of offending them? Huh

[dantesspirit]

If you ARE from said marginalized group of people I'll ask you to understand that they probably did not mean any harm and explain just how bad it is and how it hurt you,

No.

That's not their job. Google exists for this very thing.

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, members of marginalized groups don’t have to do shit in this case because I very much doubt they were the ones taking umbrage with some Korean singer wearing rainbow braids. This sounds like a very specific kind of outrage that can only be found online among a very specific certain kind of people.

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

Maybe you're not wrong (?) but to expect this level of uh, clearheadedness from a hoard of tweens from different cultures on, say, k-pop twitter is... well, idk. Some kids buy into discourse and I talked about this because it was one of my online friends (a lovely black girl from the Global South) who brought this controversy to my attention. And then I was like oh, got it, it's offensive to her and it could be offensive to some, SORRY. It's why I think its positive to... talk about things (instead of treating everything as big taboos).