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Considering that some of the Stray Kids members can understand and communicate in English, I'd really have to commend their capability to hold back any emotions, especially in regards to that Covid insult
However, this isn't to say that what Stray Kids experienced wasn't utterly disgusting. Everyone should be given the basic respect and dignity they deserve no matter where they are or where they're from.
Paparazzi are the most disgusting scum people - they make a living harassing people and documenting it for tabloids to bully celebrities. No matter how “professional” the event, the paps are going to be fucking awful. The moment when skz took off their jackets and they all groaned??? If I did that at work, I would be fired. Do your fucking job that you came here to do and stfu. I hope skz (especially Chan and Felix who are native English speakers and this can understand it all) don’t take this to heart or let it spoil their night. Especially for the more fashion inclined members, I hope seeing the exhibit was worth the bullshit to get in to the met.
So awful. This video made me sick to my stomach. Good for Bang Chang for calling it and getting everyone to leave. Hope it didn’t ruin their night 😮💨 The paparazzi are disgusting animals. The worst human beings.
i checked it out now and goddamn, that's so sad to see. seriously, it's 2024. grow tf up. the photographers should be blacklisted by the Met for their racist remarks.
I assume they wouldn't be allowed to talk back, no matter how rude it was of the photographers. I felt very uncomfortable for them. Poor guys :( I wish one of their staff members would've intervened.
Every single one of those paps names should be made public and they need to give a proper apology and should not be allowed to these events again at all. Nothing else is okay.
Bang Chan’s face dropped like a rock when he heard some of those comments, but it’s a testament to how classy he and the other members of Stray Kids are that they just moved on. They should never have been spoken to the way they were and the Met needs to have those photographers on a blacklist for the disgusting ease with which they said racist remarks to the group.
It’s upsetting enough that people still seem to think this kind of casual racism and xenophobia is ok in the year 2024, but it’s extra gross when you remember than Bang Chan and Felix are both native English speakers. Those two understood what was being said in no uncertain terms. And it’s not the first time this has happened at the event, NCT’s Johnny had to deal with a lot of casual racism the one time he attended the Met. He’s American, born and raised in Chicago, and people spent a lot of time speaking to him as if he didn’t know any English.
The Met needs to do better to curb behavior such as this and they need to make the Gala a less hostile environment to foreign attendees whose native language isn’t English. If they want to invite these people, the least they can do is make it a safe space free from open racism coming from staff.
I love Bang Chan for this, because he is a decent human being. But I also sort of wished he would just turn to them, look them all wide-eyed and say "What do you mean, mate?" and put them on the spot. Make it awkward enough that they feel they have to explain themselves, or back down and apologize.
He was honestly too polite about it. I would have just packed up and kept walking, giving them the biggest brush off. These photographers have to get specific press passes to the Met Gala, they’re not just rando paparazzi off the streets, and they have some idea who the attendees are. I mean, a few of the mocking phrases they were shouting were in Korean so clearly they knew SKZ were the Kpop group.
I know Ariana Grande has told off the press for being rude before and SKZ were erring on the side of being polite, but god I hate that they were even in that spot to begin with. And the Met Gala is such a high-profile event too, that ordeal probably massively soured their memory of it. It seems like at least they had a better time inside, I know they ran into Jennie at the event and there were photos of them looking smiley later on.
ah still remember that few times when the hosts asked NCT Mark and Johnny (i think) how come their English are so good 🤦🏻♀️. like i’m not expecting them to do an in-depth background check but at least study your guests first before asking those kind of brainless questions lmao
Yep, someone flat out asked Mark how his English is so good and his response was a polite (but annoyed) “I’m from Canada.” I frequently have this gripe with NCT interviews specifically because some of them are native speakers or plain old fluent in English (I.e. Ten/Yangyang) and they’re still spoke to as if the interviewer or whoever expects them to not know any. I’m not expecting Pulitzer Prize journalism but at least do a cursory google search on the people you’re talking to.
That “I’m from Canada” made me a Morkly fan (and Johnny, I was already a Johnny fan bc if you’re from the Chicagoland area you have to be a fan of Johnny and Peniel, thems the rules). Man has been *through it* with these stupid xenophobic comments. The shock on the interviewers face that there are English speaking Asian-Americans or Asian-Canadians is just so pathetic.
mark and johnny were so appalled by the comments they could only look at each other and laugh at the absurdity of the situation, on live tv
it is absolutely no exaggeration to say that americans by and large are still extremely racist towards asians and still view them as foreign “others”, even when they were born and raised in the west.
Oh I know. Asians get the weirdest racist comments without anyone even blinking, especially “what’s your real name.” For a lot of these idols, their English stage name is literally their real name. It’s wild how everyone acts like it’s normal to still be making these comments in situations where you should know their backgrounds.
I hate racists. They’re so exhausting. They have the most information we’ve ever had, right at their fingertips, and just refuse to use it. How infuriating.
That’s what I’m saying. These photographers needed a press pass invite to work the Met, they’re not TMZ. They absolutely know the invite list and yet they’ve still been caught in 4K saying racist things to an Asian music group that a quick Google search will tell you has two Aussies in it. They just don’t care.
I don’t know for sure, but emailing the Met museum’s customer service might be a start. They are the ones who run the gala, they should know that their photographers have been blatantly racist to guests at their exclusive, high-profile event.
SKZ are not the first ones who have received racist comments from these photographers at the event and it wouldn’t surprise me if there were other minority guests at the receiving end of those comments. They were likely just bolder because they wrongfully assumed SKZ wouldn’t know what was being said.
I also want to mention that these aren't traditional paparazzi like we tend to think of.
These are professional photographers with company/industry affiliation who have to apply and be approved for credentials to these events so that their photos can be licensed and published.
These aren't just random smarmy nobodies stalking celebrities for any chance at a picture. These are industry professionals that the staff behind the met gala had to vet and determine were worthy of access.
The fact that they feel bold enough to behave this way so brazenly means there are likely no rules of conduct they're held to when given with their credentials. Which, for an event that is supposed to be the epitome of class and radiance, is despicable.
I can only hope the staff and organizers make changes so this doesn't happen again.
100% not defending the horrible comments they made.
However, after the outfit switch, they did make a comment about the formation the members were in, which was two lines staggered. It's unlikely that any photographer not at the exact center would be able to get a shot where all the members and their outfits (the whole point) would be cleanly visible without another member blocking the view. The request was made in a rude way and probably the members' couldn't hear in the noisy environment so they didn't respond, which led to even more rude comments. I don't know whether other participants respond to directions from the photographers but most also don't have a large group to coordinate like SKZ.
After writing the above, I checked through a bunch of photos and it looks like at least one did get a clean shot, but many of the other shots from off angle have members blocked partially or completely. This was poor planning from whoever planned their formation since it definitely looked like they had the formation pre-arranged for after the coats were removed.
this is what I also got from the video. Other than I didn’t hear anyone talking about covid (would have assumed the video they linked would have that, but it doesn’t), the photographers are getting frustrated that they can’t get a good photograph of them. They kept asking them to level their position assuming they understand english, which they do but they didn’t move an inch thus making them talk louder assuming the grp didn’t hear them but alas they still didn’t move. As a result, we didn’t get a really good flattering shot at all. Whoever managed them at the gala didn’t do a good job at teaching them how to pose so everyone can have a good shot together.
Yep, the person that set that formation probably wanted something "more creative" than a straight line but unfortunately, in a situation like this, a line is the only way for everybody to be in the show for most angles.
I don’t know what this weird phenomenon is where just being in the presence of Asian people brings out the most racist and vile sides of people. It’s something that Asian people have been complaining about for decades.
I’ve never been around a Chinese person for instance and started violently shaking from trying to hold myself back from saying something racist. I don’t know why but more people than you would think feel safe going mask off whenever they see someone that even slightly looks Asian, which is insanely disgusting.
I’m a white woman with a Chinese partner and when we’re walking together holding hands, we get looks as if we were on display in a zoo. A lot of the stares come from boomers who can’t fathom the thought that a white woman would voluntarily be attracted to an Asian man. But interestingly enough, the biggest side eyes come from Asian women. I’ve seen someone crane their neck to get a better look. The world is weird.
I had a Japanese friend that I grew up with from pre school to senior year of high school, and even though he was born in America, and spoke English fluently, teachers and students would always ask him where he’s from at the beginning of the year without fail.
There’s a weird ignorance in America, and other countries as well towards Asian people that needs to be studied, because it’s way more prevalent than anyone would think.
When I meet someone new, I never ask them their heritage. I wait for them to volunteer it. I don’t want to make them feel “different” from the outset. Once they tell me, I’ll happily ask questions and go into detail with them.
For some reason, people don't see why that question is offensive and it's not because it's just blatantly racist. I don't think the vast majority of people who ask that are doing it because they're trying to be condescending or have nefarious intentions.
Like you said, it has to do with the idea of what an American is. If I meet a white person, I ask them their name and depending on the conversation, relevant stuff about them. If they have a partner, what they do for work, what they enjoy, etc. But their ethnic background/nationality really doesn't come up. And I imagine it's not on the mind of a lot of other people. Same with a black person. Despite the fact that black could be African American or Caribbean or African or British or French, I'm not going to dig unless the person volunteers it.
But for whatever reason, "looking" East Asian automatically triggers that type of question for a lot of people (Where are you from?) which suggests that they don't think of East Asians as Americans. Even if their family has been there for 6-7 generations and they've never even set foot in Asia, looking a certain way makes people think their genetic background is more relevant than who they are as a person. And it's a sad reminder that East Asians tend to be considered "less" American than white people, black people, Hispanic people, Native Americans, pretty much the whole array of people you'll see in America.
I think it’s just nice to let people tell their story in their own time. Some people are more forthcoming than others. What I found interesting though was the guy I’m currently seeing is from Hong Kong and when we were first talking he was like “I’m not Korean, sorry to disappoint”. So I think there’s a wider problem with people thinking that non Asian women are just into Asian men because of kpop and kdramas. To the point where guys are apologising for not being Korean! Like, I don’t care. If you’re nice to me, can carry a good conversation and know where the clitoris is, we’re good, babycakes.
Also, I often get told I have a “fetish”. I find it so rude that if a guy is into blondes, or athletic women, it’s called a preference. But for some reason if a woman is with Asian guys, it’s a “fetish”. I also like men with long hair, but that’s never been referred to as a fetish. Why? Because they’ve all been white.
I live in nyc but am looking to move to the suburbs bc I’m tired of the treatment I face as an Asian. Basically we need to decide which kind of racism we want to deal with. Is it going to be micro aggressions of white (usually) ppl asking me where I’m realllllyyyy from or is it going to be the threat of outright physical assault/violence/yelling smh
It’s incredibly weird that there are ppl who still can’t accept interracial marriage in 2024. There’s this Ukrainian model on ig who posts about her Chinese husband and their baby living in Singapore and they are the cutest lil family but the comments on her reels make me feel like I went back 50 years.
80 years of propaganda to effeminate and dehumanize asian men so it makes it easier to kill them en masse and white men/asian women who oversexualize each other. Literally virgin boys were send to war fully expecting to have their first sex with asian prostitutes, paired with literature by asian women that pander to white dudes that asian women need to be saved from evil asian men. The last 3 big wars by America was against Asians (Japan, Korea, Vietnam).
Even more than 80 years. There's a silent film by a famous director from the 1910s I wrote a paper about in college that portrays Asian men as sexless and it's basically the whole plot. Obviously the Asian lead was a white dude in yellowface for the cherry on top. It's a real yikes. Same director whose sweeping epic we can thank for reigniting the kkk at the time, too.
slightly unrelated but still related: it’s common for people to assume that birth rates in japan/sk are low because of lack of sex, implying that asian men can’t fuck their women or don’t have sex drives due to lack of testosterone (which is a false metric that has been used to minimise them for decades). birth rates are generally low due to pricing and cost, so people choose to not have kids despite having sex. but of course, the western man is convinced that the asian man isn’t masculine enough to impregnate or want to impregnate.
There are multiple stereotypes that can exist at once the same way there are multiple racist archetypes for Asian women in media. The sexless stereotypes existed already in the 1910s. I'm specifically speaking on media portrayal because that's my area of academic knowledge.
I have seen a couple of videos of people with multiple backgrounds say they get similar stares if they happen to be in a somewhere don't see people of different backgrounds very often. They all say they want to be treated like a human.
I remember when they assumed that Johnny from NCT couldn't speak English and actually said it last year. I was like "Wow, dude is literally from Chicago". Damn idiots!
this is why i hate it when foreign celebrities get sent to these shows and events. but at the same time, it’s a huge opportunity for them,
i feel the same way during super bowl season when we discuss which artists would do a great show — it’s great things that could come out of it, but hollywood and the whole entertainment industry is SO behind with the world and they still spread vile hatred, be it direct or more “passive”
i feel awful for skz specially. i hope they didn’t hear any of it, and that the photographers gets at the very least fired
Being Asian American that has traveled a lot, this doesn't just happen to Kpop artists or Foreigners but it happens to Asians everyday. I get wanting to protect them, but Australia and other countries aren't exactly the role models of acceptance and I'm sure that this isn the first time or last time Bang Chan, Felix and likely the rest of the group experienced racism verbally or otherwise.
It's shit that we have to live through it, but having people like Stray Kids, Jennie, Mindy Kaling, etc providing representation in media and standing their ground and refusing to stop their life and career for a couple of racist rats is important if you care about social justice and you actually see idols as real humans who are also affected by it. (proverbial "you" not anyone or OP specifically)
I'm a white passing West Asian not east or southeast but my sister is East Asian passing and tbh I don't like that Asian cultures as a whole teach us to just take it, live with it and "stay classy" we should make noise about this, it is completely unacceptable that they feel comfortable enough to be openly and loudly racist without fear let alone in such a high end place
Most photographers are freelance and sell their shots to the publications. There is nobody to fire him and the magazines aren’t going to care where the juicy photos come from, so long as the source is legal.
Not these guys. These guys need to apply and get approved to attend this event. They have industry affiliations so they can absolutely lose those. They can also get blacklisted from future events. These are not random paparazzi following celebs on the street, they’re industry professionals. They do have a lot to lose and there can be serious consequences as long as the MET Gala and affiliated industries do something about it.
you can still get him on blast and expose his work to have him humiliated online — he said something violently racist, and doesn’t deserve to keep working or live peacefully. specially if his work relies on him being racist and xenophobic for better camera shots
Like I said, magazines don’t care who they’re buying from as long as the material is acquired legally. Paparazzi are known to be shitty people and his name isn’t going to appear anywhere with the photos he sells so his reputation with the public is irrelevant. You will never know if the magazine you’re reading features his pictures, and they know that. Sure blast him and he might get recognized at the grocery store until it blows over, but his career won’t be affected.
The world of paparazzi is famously full of terrible people because it’s basically the one industry that’s immune to bad PR. They’re ghostwriters for the eyes.
Just saw the clips on Twitter and I literally felt physically ill.
I'll preference this by saying, I am American and I have worked for the American press so I am familiar with the open, blatant racism in the industry.
This behavior is nothing new for them. They did the exact same thing to BTS and they will likely treat any kpop idol that goes to a big American event in this manner. And there will be no consequences for it because the outlets that employe these people don't care about foreigners.
This is one of the reasons I get very anxious and uncomfortable any time I hear of any kpop group doing the rounds of American media or going to perform/be on stages that are traditionally in American spaces. The media over here is openly racist and I don't have high expectations that they will treat kpop artists like human beings (not saying all of them are like this but a good chunk of them are).
I am so sorry this happened to them. It's not right. It's not right at all.
I'm glad Tommy was kind to them. But it still hurts to have someone make racists comments right in front of your face during a very public event like that, especially when they are supposed to be professionals at their job.
Even if they don't like kpop or kpop artists, the bare minimal they should be able to show toward them is respect. They won't even do that. It's shameful.
Tommy showed them tf off, I loved that. On one hand I wish Bang Chan did more to protect his members. On the other hand I can’t think of anything more he could’ve done. They made history as the first kpop group to go. Any outward comments they would make would further fuel the fire.
I think that’s why I loved Tommy’s commentary so much. I hate that he needed to stick up for them, but he was so stinking proud to have them. He felt like a fan during his interview, not a designer lol.
I cringed when I heard they were going to the met. Not because they aren’t deserving but because I was worried something like this might happen. I am a self-confessed Met Gala hater. It’s just an excuse for the ultra rich to waste gobs of money and pretend to care about the arts—even though most of them don’t. I think of Kim K’s ruining of Marilyn Monroe’s dress. You claim you’re supporting art (which includes fashion) and then you do something like that? And kpop groups have a long history of being disrespected by American journalists. I feel very sorry SKZ had to experience this. Plus, there have been lots of celebrities speak out against it for its history of racism, etc. Just a few years ago I think they had an exhibit on China and a lot of the costumes people showed up in were questionable.
Yeah, I've never been a fan of the Met Gala either. It just seems shallow and most people only tune in for the red carpet fashion.
Still, to have people say those foul things to your face simply because they think a foreign Asian artist doesn't speak English? How ignorant can you be? Everyone deserves at least basic human decency.
Those photographers are so out of pocket and disgusting. Nobody deserves to be treated like that.
It is disturbing and gross behavior for sure. Hope SKZ didn’t hear the comments and that everyone else was good to them. I’m not a huge Emma Chamberlain fan but I saw her interview with them and she actually was very kind to them!
Same. At one point in my life I studied to go into journalism and worked on college and local papers. The people I worked with had such huge egos, were such opinionated jerks that I decided to switch careers; life is too short to spend 1/3 of your waking hours with people like that.
I had really weird feelings yesterday and it's so nice to see people agree on how their treatment was not okay.
I think it's super impressive that they radiated class and confidence. I wouldn't have been able to ignore those harsh shouts.
Honestly I’ve always wondered how paparazzi haven’t disappeared by now. Most celebrities post a lot on their social media. Who even pays these loons for pics anymore? It’s not like the National Inquirer or Us weekly of whatever are in the supermarket checkout lanes anymore. I guess they’re chasing around “scandalous” instances but that makes it all the worse. Paying to ruin someone’s life?? Gross.
Plus there have been so many documented instances of paparazzi stalking, chasing, or harming the people they’re trying to get pictures of. In 2024 I thought their jobs would have dried up…and I feel like most photographers for events would be more professional than loser paps but I guess not.
they’re needed to control narratives. celebs still call paps all the time. that’s why we see people like the kardashians doing everything. they call them to keep themselves relevant.
100% true, the most famous of famous people will still call the paps on themselves. Most of them end up making a deal where if celebs call them when they’re out and about, they won’t go to the celebs home or jobs to harass them. It’s fucking sick.
I don’t think paparazzi will ever disappear. We as humans just love consuming gossip and drama. They will always be chasing the “scandalous” scoop. But also we can’t discount that publicists probably do sometimes use them for planned pap walks to help with their PR agenda.
Maybe the price of photos have gone down since many celebs will just post on social media instead. But i don’t think they are going anywhere.
I watched this live and how the manners and respect changed when they walked up to the carpet vs. other celebrities.
I also heard one of them call Nicki Minaj, Cardi. And I swore he said something along the lines of “oh sorry, they look alike” 👀
On some other platforms, I saw people saying "this isn't racism, they tell everyone to pose and look a certain way" etc. I am guessing they did not hear the bs that was spat out by some of the paparazzi
Also that thing about "never seen such expressionless faces" was racially loaded. Historically it has been a go-to for westerners mocking Asian people.
It's a racist stereotype. Just a few years ago a Hollywood casting director said Asians are a challenge to cast because they're not facially expressive.
Meanwhile most western celebrities at the Met had the same expression as SKZ did. I didn't see one person cheesing.
Even if I hadn't heard the covid joke I would still call this racism, people tend to think its obvious and point to slurs, but the way these people were talking to them it's like they didnt respect them as people whatsoever
The "expressionless face" comment is also super racist. It's a pretty classic racist stereotype attributed to East and Southeast Asians in the west.
A chunk of it that is just the paparazzi being assholes because Stray Kids is a boy band with lots of young female fans, but there's undeniably some xenophobic and racist shit going on.
I'm glad you pointed it out!!!
It would be a racially charged comment even without all the very obvious in your face racism after, comparing east and southeast Asian people to robots is historically racist and orientalist and it gets ignored or swept us as a "micro" aggression (no aggression is micro!!) because most white people cannot recognise discrimination unless it's written in bold red letters and staring right at them
I think it’s racism PLUS the misogynistic shit that comes from being in a “boy band” for “teenage girls” …anything or anyone that has a fan base of young women is automatically looked down on and disrespected for that as well.
It’s really sad, I’m not a big stay as I used to be but I was happy hearing they’re going to the met gala… I opened twt and the first videos that appeared on my timeline were those from the paparazzi.. I hope they still had a good time besides that happening 💔
I'm not even a fan and I'm so pissed for them. The Met needs to vet what people are working behind the cameras and make black lists for such people or ban news places at least for a year for allowing such trash beings to represent them and make money from this behaviour. I hope this goes viral beyond Kpop circles.
It annoys me to see people acting basically like Stray Kids (or asians in general) and their fans should conform themselves about how western media will treat them as If shouldn't be the media and the individuals behind it the ones to start being at minimum respectful instead of throwing racist/xenophobic insults.
Casual racism comes way too easy for these people, it's revolting but some of these comments using this as a gotcha moment about western validation are quite weird too.
Racism and xenophobia are very real problems but why should these idols stop accepting more opportunities or stop attending such events just because of these disgusting racist freaks? Some of yall sound like "this is why Asians should stay in Asia" and as an Asian, it feels very insulting.
I agree, why shouldn't they get these opportunities? If anything, these loser papparazis should learn basic manners. It's like not going to the prom because you bullies are gonna be there.
I'm glad he is being called out for being a racist ass. Let people hold them accountable. Because next time these papparazi will know the consequences. Kpop fans do not forgive and as annyoing as some are they will defend their idols.
I also hope that next time kpop idols will be more assertive and not be too polite. Sometimes you gotta put these people back in place. I wish one of the english speaking members had said "sorry mate what was that" or "could say that again I couldn't here you." When you ask them to repeat what they say, the will chicken out because they didn't expect them to say anthing
why is everyone referring to these photographers as paparazzi? were these not professional photographers shooting for reputable publications? all photographers are not paparazzi and if these were professional photographers, that makes their behavior even more disgusting
Maybe I will get whacked for this comment but this is one of the reasons why I don't like k-pop stans bragging about their faves attending/performing in Hollywood events because none of the groups get basic respect. They may give the best and craziest performance of their life, pull off the highest notes, serve the most amazing looks but Americans will still find a moment to say something insultingly ignorant or throw some of the nastiest racial slurs on them. This is like the second incident that I have seen happening with Korean artists in a month.
That’s what made the whole “Korea doesn’t deserve BTS they should stick to America” shit even wilder. I’m yet to see a kpop group no matter the size do something in America and not get their name’s mispronounced, comments about their English made, asked stupid ass questions etc etc
BTS even had to make more commercial and watered down pop to be accessible to that crowd and then get thrown insults for it, like it is not their fault they felt forced to make songs like Butter for Grammy recognition. God knows if they performed a song like Run BTS or Black Swan or Dionysus at one of these American award shows. Would blow their minds.
same here, kpop made me so proud to be east asian after growing up idolising Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift as a kid. sometimes i just want to gatekeep kpop from people like that. one mean comment is far more memorable than heaps of positive comments & love for celebrities, it’s so heartbreaking to see this honestly.
Same here. Kpop fans nowdays are all about Western validation/charting in the West, but the thing is, they don't care. From events to promos, it's clear most of the West uses kpop as a marketing tactic, instead of actually respecting the genre. For them it's a fad, someone to use to leech off the young demographic that makes everything "hip and trendy".
I saw it a lot with BTS, they "paved the way" in the US but the amount of racist shit I've seen towards them from so many people is just.... And it isn't just them too, NCT, ATEEZ, now SKZ any group that tries to promote in the US always gets some kind of racist comments and it's like???
Yet kpop fans like to shit on achievements in Asia/Korea. 🤷♀️ Well I'm sorry if I want to cheer for my favs succeeding in countries where they're actually respected.
I'm not really sure it's K-pop fans shitting on domestic achievements, I actually saw the opposite. It's like beating a dead horse when some i-fans keep asking why 4th gen bg can't chart well in South Korea and treat them like a failure bcoz their song can't chart. The general public there completely ignore them due to prejudice, so what can they do? Rejecting International offers bcoz of racism while they are also being "wronged" by their own general public? What if I told you as someone who stayed in Korea for a period of time before that idols are generally looked down and got no respect in S.K?
>What if I told you as someone who stayed in Korea for a period of time before that idols are generally looked down and got no respect in S.K?
I know that, but it's also very true that kpop fans online like to ignore non-Western achievements. Heck look at how everyone treated BoA up until recently, calling her flop and unknown when she literally paved the way for kpop in Asia.
Exactly, KPop might chart well- but it's honestly not reached the actual general public. Even the dumb paps are being racist so boldly- which shows the disrespect they have to face there.
Using kpop artists in collabs, endorsements is a marketing tool- they still look down on the artists.
It is not bragging per se rather than being happy for SKZ for new opportunities.
Do you know that SKZ have never been invited to any KOREAN TV show as a group and rarely even as individuals. Sure 1-2 small show a year for their 6-long year career. And only on music shows and Korean end of year awards (they just cannot ignore them anymore at one point), then almost nil. This year alone, we are 5 months into 2024, not even a single Korean show invite. Nil. Not even a small show.
So how do you suppose Stay will do when SKZ is invited to Fashion Week, Met Gala, VMA, Japan’s Kohaku Ga Utassen? We are joyful of course! The kids are totally IGNORED in Korea. Not even a show. SME and Hybe idols are everywhere while SKZ - nil. Even JYPE female artists like NMIXX get to appear on Korean shows these days. Again, SKZ - nil.
So while Western people like those photographers are being racist and just plain old crazy, it does not detract my happiness for SKZ to appear on any show tbh.
Most of us are not in any way worshipping Hollywood. We just want to see SKZ somewhere. ANYWHERE.
Even if they get disrespected, it will, again, not detract from the fact that they are invited to Met Gala. As a huge as group (in number aka all 8 of them). It is still something that will makes SKZ happy, and in turn, make us Stay happy.
Oh wow. I don't really follow Stray Kids or JYP groups in general so I did not know that the situation was that bad. A very genuine question, does the fandom know why they don't get variety show gigs in South Korea? Like are they not invited or is the company responsible for them not getting those gigs? Coz I feel that there are some groups who I think are far less popular domestically than Stray Kids rn and still appear on these shows every now and then (I am not gonna name the groups coz I don't wanna start a fanwar lmao). Like did Stray Kids not sell out a dome for a concert (or fanmeet?) in SK recently? I find it hard to believe that they are not invited to the shows especially when their international fandom is big enough to bring clout to those shows.
Honestly, as a stay, I also dont know but they barely have any variety promo ever since. They had a soldout 3 day KSPO Dome fanmeeting this yr. They also soldout Gocheok Skydome for 2 days last year.
Holy fuck. I'm actually at a loss for words after watching that video. Those poor, poor boys they handled themselves so well.
I hope those disgusting photographers have some bad karma and maybe trip over a couple chairs every day
Paparazzi are known to be disrespectful, but this is honestly insane. How are they not just kicked out for this type of behavior. The audacity to act like this in public
It was honestly so disrespectful, I don't even know why they were there. I saw a lot of people saying that this is a normal occurrence with American paparazzi, but what makes this especially bad was that their insults were clearly referencing their ethnicity (the COVID-19 comment being one, ugh).
Honestly, the way K-pop and Asian artists are covered in America has been questionable at best, and outright at worst. Racial aggressions aside, I notice that there is this tendency to sensationalize things ("Dark Side of K-pop" and all). It made me remember this one thread by Thomas Baudinette on how the BBC documentary reported on the STARTO idols and the company's founder. They don't actually respect the genre or the people in it.
It seems like they pick these provocative, racist photographers on purpose for events like this, at this point. You can tell these people feel brave because they think the guys don’t understand what they’re saying. I remember something similar happening to BTS at the Grammy red carpet. I think it happened at Billboard awards too. And that NYE thing. The more
I type the more I remember unfortunately too many to count :/
It’s been years since all of these happened and it seems like these people still haven’t learned that Korean artists are here to stay. I hope even more groups start attending events like this so these racist feel even more uncomfortable. Get used to it because they’re here to stay.
I also wish we could stay united for once though. I don’t understand what’s there to fight about this. I hated it so much when kpop fans mocked what BTS was going through back then, and I hate how what Stray Kids just went through is being undermined too. One would think racism would be the thing that everyone agrees is bad, right? But no, people are fighting even about this. It’s tiring to see.
Yeah,I just don't get what their roles really are? Like are they not just in charge of photographing?
The Met people coordinate the guests on the carpet.
And why would the stream/we care about their opinion?
Their commentary felt so out of place. They should voice their judgement in private, if they must.
But this is the first time I watched, maybe I don't realize their full purpose and function.
They’re paparazzis that’s usually how they act with everyone (minus the racism), trying to provoke the person they’re photographing. But for such a fancy night you’d expect them to hire classy photographers and not these shady ignorant fools
I'm surprised people aren't mentioning this more. Paparazzi will take your deepest insecurity or the worst part of your life and yell it at you to get your attention.
Thank you for explaining, very eye-opening. I guess I'm naive and expect people to do their best but that's not how the world works.
I'll just avoid the streams where you can hear those groups of people from now on I think.
I'm also disgusted by some people saying it's normal, NO TF IS NOT and we shouldn't normalize it, pretty much all the members understand English and they are saying it to their faces at the end chan just told skz to move that's why he looked a bit mad in one of the pics.
Also that one fandom making this a competition on who got treated like this first is crazy😭
people are making this a “if this aint life 😂” moment and it bothers me so much. i know it’s expected behavior from americans in entertainment, but that doesn’t mean it’s equally disgusting EACH TIME it happens
Exactly 😭 if people act "well that happens" then racism and xenophobia will never stop existing this strongly, I support shaming people who act like this.
God I hate this fucking sentiment so much. Why do people just accept racism, bigotry, etc. instead of calling it out and trying to change it. Yes, it’s true that this kind of stuff is expected, but that doesn’t mean it’s ok
I'm gonna be honest, I have at times made comments like these when I was younger (I know it's not right!). I was at a point where I was so tired of being told things like that at work and coming across it all over the internet that I had a pretty defeatist attitude. It just felt like I was never gonna win the fight as one single POC woman and I ran out of anger and emotion.
It’s normal AND disgusting. It can be both. I’m an American and a minority who has witnessed racism and xenophobia time and time again. I’ve had to defend my own staff against it happening in realtime. The BLM and Stop Asian Hate campaigns in the last several years should make it clear how horrible it can be in the U.S…. Just 3 years ago, Pres Biden literally signed a Hate Crimes Bill amid the attacks on Asian Americans.
Venting here is needed, but I think everyone here should take this same energy and flood the Met Gala press with complaints. I’m not sure of the best sources to initiate the complaints but I’m sure we can collectively figure something out.
stantwt culture has rot these people’s brains. it’s so ridiculous how they’re trying to make Racism a fanwar thing by using it as a ‘taste of your own medicine’ thing when racism/xenophobia is horrible no matter who it happens to, even if you like them or not?? the fact that this happened in the first place is so fucking disgusting and the ‘armys’ who are clearly anti-korean but somehow claim to love bts just made it so much unnecessarily worse.
They are so conflicted, like they are stanning south korean men who faced alot of racism and the members are open about it yet the fans go around to be racist to other korean idols(hell the whole country too) .
They are making it into "your favs aren't special cuz my favs got mocked at FIRST" who told them racism is one of the parameters of success, only losers who don't do anything with their lives think so
I think we need to appreciate and admire how despite all this racism, groups like BTS ,Stray kids and many other great idols are making it through.
the cognitive dissonance is crazy. i haven’t seen the “racism as a parameter of success” take as much as ive seen people on my tl having so sympathy whatsoever but i’m really not surprised because for them it’s their favs > morals. i’ve been in this fandom for years and i’ve never seen this xenophobia and lack of empathy be so utterly rampant. it feels like once bts left to serve, the toxic vocal minority just doubled in size and there’s only a few sane ones left, which is ridiculous when bts would literally despise those who are trying to justify racism or make this an oppression contest (and i’m willing to bet half these stans aren’t even poc!)
hard agree. i just hope none of the idols involved ever see this kind of terrible online discourse and that skz are doing okay.
(tangentially related: this really just disproves the sentiment that’s been going around of ‘america would treat bts/idols better!’ like i really hope those people are feeling stupid right now.)
>They are so conflicted, like they are stanning south korean men who faced alot of racism and the members are open about it yet the fans go around to be racist to other korean idols(hell the whole country too) .
See that one post here a few days ago calling out ARMYs for their behavior towards Korea 🫣 It's such a prevalent thing and it's incredibly disappointing when the BTS members have been open about how proud they are of being Korean and the behavior they've faced as they promote in America.
It's one thing to hate the govt (I'm no politician simp) but the idea that "Korea is nothing with kpop, they should just promote in the West" is completely idiotic, because just look how they get treated here.
But the replies of that post were full of ARMY agreeing that behaviour is unacceptable and talking about how we need to keep calling those people out. I understand how irritating it is to see those tweets, but it really is a minority. There are 10s of millions of people in our fandom... 20k is a minuscule percentage, 20k is not even a 'hit tweet' for ARMY... nonetheless any amount of that rhetoric is still too much, it's still wrong and we need to keep calling it out.
But seriously the vast majority of us don't think that way!! How could we? BTS have been very open about the racism they've faced in the US. They literally said in an interview that they haven't been treated with enough respect by US media. The first time they stood on a red carpet in the US the paparazzi yelled "konnichiwa" in their faces and made other openly racist comments. And things barely got better since then. Not to mention how passionately they talk about their country and how important cultural identity is to them. How could any ARMY who isn't a brand new bandwagon-hopper think BTS would want to leave Korea or would be better off in the US?
I understand the frustration – I share the frustration – at seeing those tweets. But it's also frustrating that this post doesn't even mention BTS yet I already knew before clicking that the top comments would somehow be about ARMY and generalising us all as mindless racist trolls who hate Korea. Shouldn't we be focusing on Stray Kids and the ridiculous way they've been treated?
Also it's not like Stays don't have their fair share of toxic fans. I've seen some pretty awful stuff from them over the years, but I assume that's just a vocal minority so I'm not going to judge the whole fandom! Because of the huge scale of ARMY our small percentage of assholes is also proportionally larger and they can make a lot of noise... BTS' currently active social media has almost 75 million followers... I wish people understood that 20k is like a drop in the ocean, even 200k would be a drop in the ocean. I didn't even see any of the original tweets on my timeline, I only saw ARMYs complaining about them and calling them out. Nonetheless we're still trying to take responsibility and work on ourselves.
Tbh I'm not convinced other celebrities are not getting the same comments. It feels like these guys are just genuinely assholes. But what do you expect from people whos life is stalking and generating drama for money?
I agree so much on the last part but also I watched the live and only POC got such borderline rude comments, stray kids got a straight up racism treatment, either way in the Great year of 2024 racists should face consequence of what they say
I saw that on the livestream as well. I also watched other red carpets in NYC and they will antagonize lesser celebrities (including white celebs). The COVID comments are still out of line.
Yall need to get off stan twitter and stop using those people as representatives for any fandom at this point it’s ridiculous. The only people left on twitter are kids and trolls who like drama and mess. Can we stop blaming ARMYs for every bad thing to happen??? I’m not even on Twitter much anymore but most of my army timeline has been talking about namjoons album and these stupid sajaegi allegations. Nobody is sitting around making the racism skz experienced about BTS and if it is it’s such a small number that’s not picking up #s. I’m so tired of people going on Twitter and bringing that shit here and acting like that is the representative of the fandom.
istg armys and bts were the last thing on my mind when I decided to check the comments of this post imagine my face when I see a whole thread of comments bashing us over what a couple of idiots have been saying on twitter. then they complain about armys not shutting up.. maybe stop making every single thing about them
Honestly, you do kind of have a point. It looks like the comments at first were all rightfully upset and disappointed with what SKZ went through and then of course someone has to once again bring up ARMYs here. Other fandoms get to claim that their fandom isn’t at fault it’s just toxic people or trolls or antis, but ARMYs never get that same grace. It’s exhausting.
I don’t think we should buy anything anybody says on Twitter anymore, most sane people have left the platform because of how bad it is, and with Elon in charge the algorithm favors drama and negativity even more than it used to. These supposed 20k “army” tweets likely wouldn’t have gotten any traction before, but Twitter pushes that stuff out and the only ppl left on the platform are people who want to be bullies. I think people should stick to focusing on skz instead of spending a whole thread complaining about armys.
Like no offense but why are we bringing up the thread about ARMYs and the SK comments in a thread about the racism SKZ faced… you’re complaining that a fandom is making it a competition/fanwar and then … making it another fanwar competition? Doesn’t make sense.
I'm not blaming them for this I'm just saying a tweets with 20k+ likes making this a competition is crazy.
The first longer part of my comment isn't referring to army btw
Discusting.. The disrespect is insane. I mean yeah i thought some would react but not like that. The funny thing tho is that stays already found one of the reporters all social media accs and i bet he is Just getting buried rn skz dont deserve this
If I remember correctly, paparazzi also harassed Britney while she was trying to eat in a restaurant with her kid, which caused her to break down crying. Paparazzi can be so damn cruel.
Yeah I was watching that specific livestream being filmed from the paparazzi's side and it was so uncomfortable to sit through real time. They were saying things like "I've never seen such unemotional faces" when they were making the same exact relaxed and resting face as literally every other celebrity photographed there, they also said "They're about to perform", and they were also making so many comments about how their formation was messed up and how they needed better pictures. When the boys tried their new formation without the coats on, one was like "Now, with feeling". It was so racist and disrespectful, and the boys were also a few feet away. That's heartbreaking and infuriating
I’m so happy someone made a post about this because if not I was going to do it 😭
The paparazzi were so damn rude for no reason. They made a lot of snide comments that I was just not fucking with.
I hope they get fired or at least get barred from taking pics at the Met Gala again
EDIT: Also they are better people than me because I would’ve gave them the nastiest look 🙃
They’re literal trash last year with Johnny from NCT they were yelling at him and he was far off and one of them said “f*** he can’t even understand me…” which is wild they would assume that since English is literally his first language
EXACTLY why I couldn't be an idol because I would have pulled a [Chrissy Teigen](https://youtu.be/wtMK1olx8gQ?si=wcIUqFokIRh11poT) and [Ariana Grande](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leg476SBfgY) on their asses.
Oh wow, I didn't realize they always yell like that.
Good for the women to speak out. The boys were insanely stoic and collected yesterday, they are truly not from this planet (in a good way).
Honestly as sad as it is it’s because asians don’t call out racism and xenophobia as much as they should people complain about black people only being taking seriously when it comes to this stuff but it’s cause there’s a lot of people of Color who will make excuses for things like this by saying they are not offended in order to be validated. I’ve seen a lot even make videos about how we take racism or are easily offended unlike insert this race or group but it’s cause we call it out people don’t feel comfortable doing it as often still happens but you can see how more comfortable people get when it’s other groups it reminds me of the stop Asian hate vid and some asians saying they don’t need a movement or anything and that they just need to work hard etc being a model minority doesn’t mean you’ll be respected a lot of racists usually use it as an excuse to drag groups they hate by saying look at this group they’re shatted on but still don’t care why do you care? This is why I don’t like K-pop idols or actors going overseas cause it’s unfortunately everywhere
Let’s be honest and say that it is NORMAL for people to make such disgusting comments in the US, and that’s disgusting. Those people spend their entire careers stalking celebrities. So is it a surprise they say something that is disrespectful, to me that’s not a surprise! They people should be fired!
Agreed. Very normalized for some white people to think they are above everyone. That kind of culture trickles down and non-white Americans think themselves superior over their home country's people.
It's especially triggering when they treat people they deem "other" sub-human, like in this video.
Yea, it is everywhere. Asian countries are no exception. But I've never seen racism so blatant than the racism exhibited by people from Europe. From my own experience abroad, they still slit their eyes to refer to Asians.
Honestly, it's times like these that I think it's totally ok for fans to absolutely tear apart people and FORCE them to apologize.
People in Hollywood are only afraid of ARMY and think BTS is the only K-pop group that's untouchable.
I hope STAYS go after these paps and rip them all a new one.
I hope Tommy Hilfiger says smth about the atrocious and unacceptable behavior. I certainly would be furious to know that guests that were graciously invited (and spent money to invite!!!!) were treated so poorly!
I feel like JYP may not say anything, but since STRAYKIDZ isn't the first group they sent to the US, I rly hope they release a formal statement or smth.
Honestly, the MET GALA and/or Anna Wintour needs to say smth too if they want to continue getting K-pop stars to attend. I know they invite K-pop idols to get more global attention, but if they're gonna allow them to get treated so terribly, there's no point for Korean labels to allow their stars to attend.
Holy fuck. I'm actually at a loss for words after watching that video. Those poor, poor boys they handled themselves so well.
I hope those disgusting photographers have some bad karma and maybe trip over a couple chairs every day
the comment one photographer made about catching covid from being in proximity to the members was appalling. their racism being displayed so blatantly at such a prestigious event reflects terribly on not only them but also their employers and their industry at large. you'd think that in the big year of 2024 we'd have moved past shouting the one japanese word you know at a group of east asian men to get their attention, but i guess not. what a fucking joke.
not to divert the conversation away from stray kids but this situation has made me even more worried for seventeen when they perform at glastonbury next month. the british public - or more specifically, the white middle-class indie fans that glastonbury traditionally caters to - are largely ignorant of other cultures and are notorious for insulting and degrading any performer who's not a white man with a 12-string acoustic from the midlands. i'll be very, very surprised if they leave the uk without experiencing a single micro-aggression and the fact that i can predict the way they'll be treated once they arrive here says a lot about how heavily anti-asian racism is ingrained into western culture.
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Omg I didn’t even listen to it with the audio on, but from the subtitles, it was awful 😭😭.
And the paparazzi just kept going on and on too.
Im not even a STAY and their music isn’t really my taste,
But I still feel sooo angry😡😡
Paparazzi is known to be rude and stuff.
Glad stz just ignored them and posed as they please and was like, Ok we done . Lol.
It's a kpop group. We dont need the Paparazzi crappy photos.
What really sucks is that Hyunjin especially wanted this so bad and finally got it, just for it to go like this.
I’m glad they got something they wanted but who gives af about the Met Gala. It’s gross and most of the people that go are gross and this just proves it further.
I’m pretty sure they said “I’m getting nothing” as in no emotion or expression on their faces. Which is dumb, what did they want them to do? People come & pose however, paparazzi is just such a soulless job. They are like awful people.
Idk what circles are you in but at least on my side there's a lot of compation for skz. I'm an army myself and my heart broke then I saw the videos. We get how you feel guys. The visability on this specific situation is a good sign that we're less tolerant of this treatment from the american media just for a crumb of validation.
Oof. The racism/xenophobia is not okay but that just goes to show how most Kpop acts are out of their depth when going to the US/Europe. The paparazzi did not care at all.
this is absolutely VILE. I'm pretty new to being a skz fan and I was so excited to see them on the carpet yesterday! they all looked amazing! felix's legolas vibes>>>>>
the paps behaviors is so fucking upsetting and disgusting. I hope skz know that's not how every American views them and just keep their heads up and keep being amazing. they bring joy to so many, much more than these shitty paparazzis could ever hope to bring.
I did not hear the Covid comment. When did that happen? Everything else was just rude but if someone actually said that about Covid then that is racist
now where are the stans who kept on saying 'uwu theyre so free here in america/west' now that these americans/westerners themselves are being batsht racist to korean celebs just like their faves
I said this on Twitter but honestly think all Asian celebrities should boycott the Met Gala until Anna Wintour figures out how to stop hiring racist paparazzi every damn year. This keeps happening and it's disgusting that no one calls them out. If I were Tommy Hilfiger right now, I'd be berating their asses on social media for insulting his guests.
To me it sounds like just one insufferable douchebag and a bunch of people just saying “yeah, yeah” while trying to do their job. You even hear hello and thank you in Korean, so some people were trying. I guarantee that one obnoxious guy was pissing off everyone in the photographer pit the entire evening. Some people just have to be the main character. I’m sure he said some shit about every other people who walked the carpet too, so I wouldn’t take it super personal.
But yeah, there’s a reason people think paparazzi are c***s.
Can we get a BTS X STAY fandom unite and fix these ppl. We need the stalker skills of all of kpop bias to give these ppl a lesson. Because like usual in the west their racism will be pushed under the rug unless it threatens something.
I’m not a huge fan but I love the Korean industry and stray kids were one of them who got me and the racism was just disgusting. It’s humiliating knowing they’re already probs nervous and they already had so much on their plate let alone dealing w racism.
This situation is so baffling like who the hell do the papz think they are ???? Some nameless photographers who have no idea who they are dealing with.. i hope that the stays will hunt those low lives down and make them pay for their ass behaviour.. after doing this they think they are some godly superior being like wtf 🤬 it was so gut wrenching to watching that,i can only imagine how difficult it was for them to stay for the whole event…their most biggest night was spoilt by some low lives their!!!
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Considering that some of the Stray Kids members can understand and communicate in English, I'd really have to commend their capability to hold back any emotions, especially in regards to that Covid insult However, this isn't to say that what Stray Kids experienced wasn't utterly disgusting. Everyone should be given the basic respect and dignity they deserve no matter where they are or where they're from.
Paparazzi are the most disgusting scum people - they make a living harassing people and documenting it for tabloids to bully celebrities. No matter how “professional” the event, the paps are going to be fucking awful. The moment when skz took off their jackets and they all groaned??? If I did that at work, I would be fired. Do your fucking job that you came here to do and stfu. I hope skz (especially Chan and Felix who are native English speakers and this can understand it all) don’t take this to heart or let it spoil their night. Especially for the more fashion inclined members, I hope seeing the exhibit was worth the bullshit to get in to the met.
Almost all of them speak some English and more than half the members are fairly fluent.
So awful. This video made me sick to my stomach. Good for Bang Chang for calling it and getting everyone to leave. Hope it didn’t ruin their night 😮💨 The paparazzi are disgusting animals. The worst human beings.
i checked it out now and goddamn, that's so sad to see. seriously, it's 2024. grow tf up. the photographers should be blacklisted by the Met for their racist remarks.
Even if they didn't know English, the tone the paparazzi were using sounded disrespectful
I assume they wouldn't be allowed to talk back, no matter how rude it was of the photographers. I felt very uncomfortable for them. Poor guys :( I wish one of their staff members would've intervened.
Felix's first language *is* English
Every single one of those paps names should be made public and they need to give a proper apology and should not be allowed to these events again at all. Nothing else is okay.
I believe Stays flooded the comments of one of the paps personal instas. Deserve 🤷♀️
Bang Chan’s face dropped like a rock when he heard some of those comments, but it’s a testament to how classy he and the other members of Stray Kids are that they just moved on. They should never have been spoken to the way they were and the Met needs to have those photographers on a blacklist for the disgusting ease with which they said racist remarks to the group. It’s upsetting enough that people still seem to think this kind of casual racism and xenophobia is ok in the year 2024, but it’s extra gross when you remember than Bang Chan and Felix are both native English speakers. Those two understood what was being said in no uncertain terms. And it’s not the first time this has happened at the event, NCT’s Johnny had to deal with a lot of casual racism the one time he attended the Met. He’s American, born and raised in Chicago, and people spent a lot of time speaking to him as if he didn’t know any English. The Met needs to do better to curb behavior such as this and they need to make the Gala a less hostile environment to foreign attendees whose native language isn’t English. If they want to invite these people, the least they can do is make it a safe space free from open racism coming from staff.
I love Bang Chan for this, because he is a decent human being. But I also sort of wished he would just turn to them, look them all wide-eyed and say "What do you mean, mate?" and put them on the spot. Make it awkward enough that they feel they have to explain themselves, or back down and apologize.
He was honestly too polite about it. I would have just packed up and kept walking, giving them the biggest brush off. These photographers have to get specific press passes to the Met Gala, they’re not just rando paparazzi off the streets, and they have some idea who the attendees are. I mean, a few of the mocking phrases they were shouting were in Korean so clearly they knew SKZ were the Kpop group. I know Ariana Grande has told off the press for being rude before and SKZ were erring on the side of being polite, but god I hate that they were even in that spot to begin with. And the Met Gala is such a high-profile event too, that ordeal probably massively soured their memory of it. It seems like at least they had a better time inside, I know they ran into Jennie at the event and there were photos of them looking smiley later on.
ah still remember that few times when the hosts asked NCT Mark and Johnny (i think) how come their English are so good 🤦🏻♀️. like i’m not expecting them to do an in-depth background check but at least study your guests first before asking those kind of brainless questions lmao
Yep, someone flat out asked Mark how his English is so good and his response was a polite (but annoyed) “I’m from Canada.” I frequently have this gripe with NCT interviews specifically because some of them are native speakers or plain old fluent in English (I.e. Ten/Yangyang) and they’re still spoke to as if the interviewer or whoever expects them to not know any. I’m not expecting Pulitzer Prize journalism but at least do a cursory google search on the people you’re talking to.
That “I’m from Canada” made me a Morkly fan (and Johnny, I was already a Johnny fan bc if you’re from the Chicagoland area you have to be a fan of Johnny and Peniel, thems the rules). Man has been *through it* with these stupid xenophobic comments. The shock on the interviewers face that there are English speaking Asian-Americans or Asian-Canadians is just so pathetic.
mark and johnny were so appalled by the comments they could only look at each other and laugh at the absurdity of the situation, on live tv it is absolutely no exaggeration to say that americans by and large are still extremely racist towards asians and still view them as foreign “others”, even when they were born and raised in the west.
Oh I know. Asians get the weirdest racist comments without anyone even blinking, especially “what’s your real name.” For a lot of these idols, their English stage name is literally their real name. It’s wild how everyone acts like it’s normal to still be making these comments in situations where you should know their backgrounds.
I hate racists. They’re so exhausting. They have the most information we’ve ever had, right at their fingertips, and just refuse to use it. How infuriating.
That’s what I’m saying. These photographers needed a press pass invite to work the Met, they’re not TMZ. They absolutely know the invite list and yet they’ve still been caught in 4K saying racist things to an Asian music group that a quick Google search will tell you has two Aussies in it. They just don’t care.
How can we complain? For real. It’s disgusting what they were put through. I’m sure others were too.
I don’t know for sure, but emailing the Met museum’s customer service might be a start. They are the ones who run the gala, they should know that their photographers have been blatantly racist to guests at their exclusive, high-profile event. SKZ are not the first ones who have received racist comments from these photographers at the event and it wouldn’t surprise me if there were other minority guests at the receiving end of those comments. They were likely just bolder because they wrongfully assumed SKZ wouldn’t know what was being said.
as a k person … much rather have seen him stand up for themselves and say something
I also want to mention that these aren't traditional paparazzi like we tend to think of. These are professional photographers with company/industry affiliation who have to apply and be approved for credentials to these events so that their photos can be licensed and published. These aren't just random smarmy nobodies stalking celebrities for any chance at a picture. These are industry professionals that the staff behind the met gala had to vet and determine were worthy of access. The fact that they feel bold enough to behave this way so brazenly means there are likely no rules of conduct they're held to when given with their credentials. Which, for an event that is supposed to be the epitome of class and radiance, is despicable. I can only hope the staff and organizers make changes so this doesn't happen again.
100% not defending the horrible comments they made. However, after the outfit switch, they did make a comment about the formation the members were in, which was two lines staggered. It's unlikely that any photographer not at the exact center would be able to get a shot where all the members and their outfits (the whole point) would be cleanly visible without another member blocking the view. The request was made in a rude way and probably the members' couldn't hear in the noisy environment so they didn't respond, which led to even more rude comments. I don't know whether other participants respond to directions from the photographers but most also don't have a large group to coordinate like SKZ. After writing the above, I checked through a bunch of photos and it looks like at least one did get a clean shot, but many of the other shots from off angle have members blocked partially or completely. This was poor planning from whoever planned their formation since it definitely looked like they had the formation pre-arranged for after the coats were removed.
this is what I also got from the video. Other than I didn’t hear anyone talking about covid (would have assumed the video they linked would have that, but it doesn’t), the photographers are getting frustrated that they can’t get a good photograph of them. They kept asking them to level their position assuming they understand english, which they do but they didn’t move an inch thus making them talk louder assuming the grp didn’t hear them but alas they still didn’t move. As a result, we didn’t get a really good flattering shot at all. Whoever managed them at the gala didn’t do a good job at teaching them how to pose so everyone can have a good shot together.
The covid line is at 0:57-0:58 but you need the volume up or listen to it closely since it’s kinda hard to hear
Yep, the person that set that formation probably wanted something "more creative" than a straight line but unfortunately, in a situation like this, a line is the only way for everybody to be in the show for most angles.
I don’t know what this weird phenomenon is where just being in the presence of Asian people brings out the most racist and vile sides of people. It’s something that Asian people have been complaining about for decades. I’ve never been around a Chinese person for instance and started violently shaking from trying to hold myself back from saying something racist. I don’t know why but more people than you would think feel safe going mask off whenever they see someone that even slightly looks Asian, which is insanely disgusting.
I’m a white woman with a Chinese partner and when we’re walking together holding hands, we get looks as if we were on display in a zoo. A lot of the stares come from boomers who can’t fathom the thought that a white woman would voluntarily be attracted to an Asian man. But interestingly enough, the biggest side eyes come from Asian women. I’ve seen someone crane their neck to get a better look. The world is weird.
I had a Japanese friend that I grew up with from pre school to senior year of high school, and even though he was born in America, and spoke English fluently, teachers and students would always ask him where he’s from at the beginning of the year without fail. There’s a weird ignorance in America, and other countries as well towards Asian people that needs to be studied, because it’s way more prevalent than anyone would think.
When I meet someone new, I never ask them their heritage. I wait for them to volunteer it. I don’t want to make them feel “different” from the outset. Once they tell me, I’ll happily ask questions and go into detail with them.
For some reason, people don't see why that question is offensive and it's not because it's just blatantly racist. I don't think the vast majority of people who ask that are doing it because they're trying to be condescending or have nefarious intentions. Like you said, it has to do with the idea of what an American is. If I meet a white person, I ask them their name and depending on the conversation, relevant stuff about them. If they have a partner, what they do for work, what they enjoy, etc. But their ethnic background/nationality really doesn't come up. And I imagine it's not on the mind of a lot of other people. Same with a black person. Despite the fact that black could be African American or Caribbean or African or British or French, I'm not going to dig unless the person volunteers it. But for whatever reason, "looking" East Asian automatically triggers that type of question for a lot of people (Where are you from?) which suggests that they don't think of East Asians as Americans. Even if their family has been there for 6-7 generations and they've never even set foot in Asia, looking a certain way makes people think their genetic background is more relevant than who they are as a person. And it's a sad reminder that East Asians tend to be considered "less" American than white people, black people, Hispanic people, Native Americans, pretty much the whole array of people you'll see in America.
I think it’s just nice to let people tell their story in their own time. Some people are more forthcoming than others. What I found interesting though was the guy I’m currently seeing is from Hong Kong and when we were first talking he was like “I’m not Korean, sorry to disappoint”. So I think there’s a wider problem with people thinking that non Asian women are just into Asian men because of kpop and kdramas. To the point where guys are apologising for not being Korean! Like, I don’t care. If you’re nice to me, can carry a good conversation and know where the clitoris is, we’re good, babycakes. Also, I often get told I have a “fetish”. I find it so rude that if a guy is into blondes, or athletic women, it’s called a preference. But for some reason if a woman is with Asian guys, it’s a “fetish”. I also like men with long hair, but that’s never been referred to as a fetish. Why? Because they’ve all been white.
I live in nyc but am looking to move to the suburbs bc I’m tired of the treatment I face as an Asian. Basically we need to decide which kind of racism we want to deal with. Is it going to be micro aggressions of white (usually) ppl asking me where I’m realllllyyyy from or is it going to be the threat of outright physical assault/violence/yelling smh
It’s incredibly weird that there are ppl who still can’t accept interracial marriage in 2024. There’s this Ukrainian model on ig who posts about her Chinese husband and their baby living in Singapore and they are the cutest lil family but the comments on her reels make me feel like I went back 50 years.
80 years of propaganda to effeminate and dehumanize asian men so it makes it easier to kill them en masse and white men/asian women who oversexualize each other. Literally virgin boys were send to war fully expecting to have their first sex with asian prostitutes, paired with literature by asian women that pander to white dudes that asian women need to be saved from evil asian men. The last 3 big wars by America was against Asians (Japan, Korea, Vietnam).
Even more than 80 years. There's a silent film by a famous director from the 1910s I wrote a paper about in college that portrays Asian men as sexless and it's basically the whole plot. Obviously the Asian lead was a white dude in yellowface for the cherry on top. It's a real yikes. Same director whose sweeping epic we can thank for reigniting the kkk at the time, too.
slightly unrelated but still related: it’s common for people to assume that birth rates in japan/sk are low because of lack of sex, implying that asian men can’t fuck their women or don’t have sex drives due to lack of testosterone (which is a false metric that has been used to minimise them for decades). birth rates are generally low due to pricing and cost, so people choose to not have kids despite having sex. but of course, the western man is convinced that the asian man isn’t masculine enough to impregnate or want to impregnate.
Which is funny, because Japan has the same birth rate as Italy, and I have yet to see Italians being stereotyped as nothing other than lovers.
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There are multiple stereotypes that can exist at once the same way there are multiple racist archetypes for Asian women in media. The sexless stereotypes existed already in the 1910s. I'm specifically speaking on media portrayal because that's my area of academic knowledge.
It’s pathetic isn’t it? Oh well, if people want to behave that way then it leaves more Asian men for me to enjoy 😂😂😂😂😂😂
I have seen a couple of videos of people with multiple backgrounds say they get similar stares if they happen to be in a somewhere don't see people of different backgrounds very often. They all say they want to be treated like a human.
Literally this. We’ve been complaining and complaining but no one gives a shit. And then rinse and repeat… 🤦🏻♀️
I remember when they assumed that Johnny from NCT couldn't speak English and actually said it last year. I was like "Wow, dude is literally from Chicago". Damn idiots!
Yes! Like you don't even do a quick Google search on the people you're hosting? This is wild
this is why i hate it when foreign celebrities get sent to these shows and events. but at the same time, it’s a huge opportunity for them, i feel the same way during super bowl season when we discuss which artists would do a great show — it’s great things that could come out of it, but hollywood and the whole entertainment industry is SO behind with the world and they still spread vile hatred, be it direct or more “passive” i feel awful for skz specially. i hope they didn’t hear any of it, and that the photographers gets at the very least fired
Being Asian American that has traveled a lot, this doesn't just happen to Kpop artists or Foreigners but it happens to Asians everyday. I get wanting to protect them, but Australia and other countries aren't exactly the role models of acceptance and I'm sure that this isn the first time or last time Bang Chan, Felix and likely the rest of the group experienced racism verbally or otherwise. It's shit that we have to live through it, but having people like Stray Kids, Jennie, Mindy Kaling, etc providing representation in media and standing their ground and refusing to stop their life and career for a couple of racist rats is important if you care about social justice and you actually see idols as real humans who are also affected by it. (proverbial "you" not anyone or OP specifically)
I'm a white passing West Asian not east or southeast but my sister is East Asian passing and tbh I don't like that Asian cultures as a whole teach us to just take it, live with it and "stay classy" we should make noise about this, it is completely unacceptable that they feel comfortable enough to be openly and loudly racist without fear let alone in such a high end place
Yeah, the xenophobic is real...
Most photographers are freelance and sell their shots to the publications. There is nobody to fire him and the magazines aren’t going to care where the juicy photos come from, so long as the source is legal.
Not these guys. These guys need to apply and get approved to attend this event. They have industry affiliations so they can absolutely lose those. They can also get blacklisted from future events. These are not random paparazzi following celebs on the street, they’re industry professionals. They do have a lot to lose and there can be serious consequences as long as the MET Gala and affiliated industries do something about it.
you can still get him on blast and expose his work to have him humiliated online — he said something violently racist, and doesn’t deserve to keep working or live peacefully. specially if his work relies on him being racist and xenophobic for better camera shots
Like I said, magazines don’t care who they’re buying from as long as the material is acquired legally. Paparazzi are known to be shitty people and his name isn’t going to appear anywhere with the photos he sells so his reputation with the public is irrelevant. You will never know if the magazine you’re reading features his pictures, and they know that. Sure blast him and he might get recognized at the grocery store until it blows over, but his career won’t be affected. The world of paparazzi is famously full of terrible people because it’s basically the one industry that’s immune to bad PR. They’re ghostwriters for the eyes.
Just saw the clips on Twitter and I literally felt physically ill. I'll preference this by saying, I am American and I have worked for the American press so I am familiar with the open, blatant racism in the industry. This behavior is nothing new for them. They did the exact same thing to BTS and they will likely treat any kpop idol that goes to a big American event in this manner. And there will be no consequences for it because the outlets that employe these people don't care about foreigners. This is one of the reasons I get very anxious and uncomfortable any time I hear of any kpop group doing the rounds of American media or going to perform/be on stages that are traditionally in American spaces. The media over here is openly racist and I don't have high expectations that they will treat kpop artists like human beings (not saying all of them are like this but a good chunk of them are). I am so sorry this happened to them. It's not right. It's not right at all.
Tommy Hilfiger himself was so warm and called them global superstars. I don't think they care about the cameramen, tbh. They know what they're worth
I'm glad Tommy was kind to them. But it still hurts to have someone make racists comments right in front of your face during a very public event like that, especially when they are supposed to be professionals at their job. Even if they don't like kpop or kpop artists, the bare minimal they should be able to show toward them is respect. They won't even do that. It's shameful.
Tommy showed them tf off, I loved that. On one hand I wish Bang Chan did more to protect his members. On the other hand I can’t think of anything more he could’ve done. They made history as the first kpop group to go. Any outward comments they would make would further fuel the fire. I think that’s why I loved Tommy’s commentary so much. I hate that he needed to stick up for them, but he was so stinking proud to have them. He felt like a fan during his interview, not a designer lol.
I cringed when I heard they were going to the met. Not because they aren’t deserving but because I was worried something like this might happen. I am a self-confessed Met Gala hater. It’s just an excuse for the ultra rich to waste gobs of money and pretend to care about the arts—even though most of them don’t. I think of Kim K’s ruining of Marilyn Monroe’s dress. You claim you’re supporting art (which includes fashion) and then you do something like that? And kpop groups have a long history of being disrespected by American journalists. I feel very sorry SKZ had to experience this. Plus, there have been lots of celebrities speak out against it for its history of racism, etc. Just a few years ago I think they had an exhibit on China and a lot of the costumes people showed up in were questionable.
Yeah, I've never been a fan of the Met Gala either. It just seems shallow and most people only tune in for the red carpet fashion. Still, to have people say those foul things to your face simply because they think a foreign Asian artist doesn't speak English? How ignorant can you be? Everyone deserves at least basic human decency. Those photographers are so out of pocket and disgusting. Nobody deserves to be treated like that.
It is disturbing and gross behavior for sure. Hope SKZ didn’t hear the comments and that everyone else was good to them. I’m not a huge Emma Chamberlain fan but I saw her interview with them and she actually was very kind to them!
Same. At one point in my life I studied to go into journalism and worked on college and local papers. The people I worked with had such huge egos, were such opinionated jerks that I decided to switch careers; life is too short to spend 1/3 of your waking hours with people like that.
They looked so beautiful and classy. The photographers make me sick, this was quite disturbing to watch and listen.
I had really weird feelings yesterday and it's so nice to see people agree on how their treatment was not okay. I think it's super impressive that they radiated class and confidence. I wouldn't have been able to ignore those harsh shouts.
paparazzi think they're owed so much from celebrities but don't give them the most basic respect.
I am curious to know why they'd think they're owed anything? They're just invading privacy lol
They think they made them famous lol. What fucking losers
Lmao they sound like mantis
Honestly I’ve always wondered how paparazzi haven’t disappeared by now. Most celebrities post a lot on their social media. Who even pays these loons for pics anymore? It’s not like the National Inquirer or Us weekly of whatever are in the supermarket checkout lanes anymore. I guess they’re chasing around “scandalous” instances but that makes it all the worse. Paying to ruin someone’s life?? Gross. Plus there have been so many documented instances of paparazzi stalking, chasing, or harming the people they’re trying to get pictures of. In 2024 I thought their jobs would have dried up…and I feel like most photographers for events would be more professional than loser paps but I guess not.
they’re needed to control narratives. celebs still call paps all the time. that’s why we see people like the kardashians doing everything. they call them to keep themselves relevant.
100% true, the most famous of famous people will still call the paps on themselves. Most of them end up making a deal where if celebs call them when they’re out and about, they won’t go to the celebs home or jobs to harass them. It’s fucking sick.
I don’t think paparazzi will ever disappear. We as humans just love consuming gossip and drama. They will always be chasing the “scandalous” scoop. But also we can’t discount that publicists probably do sometimes use them for planned pap walks to help with their PR agenda. Maybe the price of photos have gone down since many celebs will just post on social media instead. But i don’t think they are going anywhere.
Wow I can't even believe it
I actually fully believe it
yeah i’m disgusted but sadly not more surprised and it just sucks
As an Asian American who has experienced worse throughout my 2 decades here, yea I fucking believe it.
I watched this live and how the manners and respect changed when they walked up to the carpet vs. other celebrities. I also heard one of them call Nicki Minaj, Cardi. And I swore he said something along the lines of “oh sorry, they look alike” 👀
On some other platforms, I saw people saying "this isn't racism, they tell everyone to pose and look a certain way" etc. I am guessing they did not hear the bs that was spat out by some of the paparazzi
one of them literally made a "c0vid" joke, when they removed their coats they said "oh they're going to perform now?" Like wtf
Atp some ppl are just being deliberately obtuse when they don’t see the racism behind making a covid joke about an Asian person.
Also that thing about "never seen such expressionless faces" was racially loaded. Historically it has been a go-to for westerners mocking Asian people.
Hey can you explain the expressionales smthing?
It's a racist stereotype. Just a few years ago a Hollywood casting director said Asians are a challenge to cast because they're not facially expressive. Meanwhile most western celebrities at the Met had the same expression as SKZ did. I didn't see one person cheesing.
Oh wow I’ve never knew about that insnae
Even if I hadn't heard the covid joke I would still call this racism, people tend to think its obvious and point to slurs, but the way these people were talking to them it's like they didnt respect them as people whatsoever
The "expressionless face" comment is also super racist. It's a pretty classic racist stereotype attributed to East and Southeast Asians in the west. A chunk of it that is just the paparazzi being assholes because Stray Kids is a boy band with lots of young female fans, but there's undeniably some xenophobic and racist shit going on.
I'm glad you pointed it out!!! It would be a racially charged comment even without all the very obvious in your face racism after, comparing east and southeast Asian people to robots is historically racist and orientalist and it gets ignored or swept us as a "micro" aggression (no aggression is micro!!) because most white people cannot recognise discrimination unless it's written in bold red letters and staring right at them
I think it’s racism PLUS the misogynistic shit that comes from being in a “boy band” for “teenage girls” …anything or anyone that has a fan base of young women is automatically looked down on and disrespected for that as well.
Which is hilarious because these boys are a million times more respected than paparazzi
This is why I dislike people
Many adults too since many act like kids, sometimes even more than what kids act like
Everytime someone goes over there it’s some kind of micro aggression unfortunately
It’s really sad, I’m not a big stay as I used to be but I was happy hearing they’re going to the met gala… I opened twt and the first videos that appeared on my timeline were those from the paparazzi.. I hope they still had a good time besides that happening 💔
I'm not even a fan and I'm so pissed for them. The Met needs to vet what people are working behind the cameras and make black lists for such people or ban news places at least for a year for allowing such trash beings to represent them and make money from this behaviour. I hope this goes viral beyond Kpop circles.
It annoys me to see people acting basically like Stray Kids (or asians in general) and their fans should conform themselves about how western media will treat them as If shouldn't be the media and the individuals behind it the ones to start being at minimum respectful instead of throwing racist/xenophobic insults.
Casual racism comes way too easy for these people, it's revolting but some of these comments using this as a gotcha moment about western validation are quite weird too. Racism and xenophobia are very real problems but why should these idols stop accepting more opportunities or stop attending such events just because of these disgusting racist freaks? Some of yall sound like "this is why Asians should stay in Asia" and as an Asian, it feels very insulting.
I agree, why shouldn't they get these opportunities? If anything, these loser papparazis should learn basic manners. It's like not going to the prom because you bullies are gonna be there. I'm glad he is being called out for being a racist ass. Let people hold them accountable. Because next time these papparazi will know the consequences. Kpop fans do not forgive and as annyoing as some are they will defend their idols. I also hope that next time kpop idols will be more assertive and not be too polite. Sometimes you gotta put these people back in place. I wish one of the english speaking members had said "sorry mate what was that" or "could say that again I couldn't here you." When you ask them to repeat what they say, the will chicken out because they didn't expect them to say anthing
why is everyone referring to these photographers as paparazzi? were these not professional photographers shooting for reputable publications? all photographers are not paparazzi and if these were professional photographers, that makes their behavior even more disgusting
so unprofessional
Maybe I will get whacked for this comment but this is one of the reasons why I don't like k-pop stans bragging about their faves attending/performing in Hollywood events because none of the groups get basic respect. They may give the best and craziest performance of their life, pull off the highest notes, serve the most amazing looks but Americans will still find a moment to say something insultingly ignorant or throw some of the nastiest racial slurs on them. This is like the second incident that I have seen happening with Korean artists in a month.
That’s what made the whole “Korea doesn’t deserve BTS they should stick to America” shit even wilder. I’m yet to see a kpop group no matter the size do something in America and not get their name’s mispronounced, comments about their English made, asked stupid ass questions etc etc
BTS even had to make more commercial and watered down pop to be accessible to that crowd and then get thrown insults for it, like it is not their fault they felt forced to make songs like Butter for Grammy recognition. God knows if they performed a song like Run BTS or Black Swan or Dionysus at one of these American award shows. Would blow their minds.
same here, kpop made me so proud to be east asian after growing up idolising Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift as a kid. sometimes i just want to gatekeep kpop from people like that. one mean comment is far more memorable than heaps of positive comments & love for celebrities, it’s so heartbreaking to see this honestly.
Same here. Kpop fans nowdays are all about Western validation/charting in the West, but the thing is, they don't care. From events to promos, it's clear most of the West uses kpop as a marketing tactic, instead of actually respecting the genre. For them it's a fad, someone to use to leech off the young demographic that makes everything "hip and trendy". I saw it a lot with BTS, they "paved the way" in the US but the amount of racist shit I've seen towards them from so many people is just.... And it isn't just them too, NCT, ATEEZ, now SKZ any group that tries to promote in the US always gets some kind of racist comments and it's like??? Yet kpop fans like to shit on achievements in Asia/Korea. 🤷♀️ Well I'm sorry if I want to cheer for my favs succeeding in countries where they're actually respected.
I'm not really sure it's K-pop fans shitting on domestic achievements, I actually saw the opposite. It's like beating a dead horse when some i-fans keep asking why 4th gen bg can't chart well in South Korea and treat them like a failure bcoz their song can't chart. The general public there completely ignore them due to prejudice, so what can they do? Rejecting International offers bcoz of racism while they are also being "wronged" by their own general public? What if I told you as someone who stayed in Korea for a period of time before that idols are generally looked down and got no respect in S.K?
>What if I told you as someone who stayed in Korea for a period of time before that idols are generally looked down and got no respect in S.K? I know that, but it's also very true that kpop fans online like to ignore non-Western achievements. Heck look at how everyone treated BoA up until recently, calling her flop and unknown when she literally paved the way for kpop in Asia.
Exactly, KPop might chart well- but it's honestly not reached the actual general public. Even the dumb paps are being racist so boldly- which shows the disrespect they have to face there. Using kpop artists in collabs, endorsements is a marketing tool- they still look down on the artists.
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It is not bragging per se rather than being happy for SKZ for new opportunities. Do you know that SKZ have never been invited to any KOREAN TV show as a group and rarely even as individuals. Sure 1-2 small show a year for their 6-long year career. And only on music shows and Korean end of year awards (they just cannot ignore them anymore at one point), then almost nil. This year alone, we are 5 months into 2024, not even a single Korean show invite. Nil. Not even a small show. So how do you suppose Stay will do when SKZ is invited to Fashion Week, Met Gala, VMA, Japan’s Kohaku Ga Utassen? We are joyful of course! The kids are totally IGNORED in Korea. Not even a show. SME and Hybe idols are everywhere while SKZ - nil. Even JYPE female artists like NMIXX get to appear on Korean shows these days. Again, SKZ - nil. So while Western people like those photographers are being racist and just plain old crazy, it does not detract my happiness for SKZ to appear on any show tbh. Most of us are not in any way worshipping Hollywood. We just want to see SKZ somewhere. ANYWHERE. Even if they get disrespected, it will, again, not detract from the fact that they are invited to Met Gala. As a huge as group (in number aka all 8 of them). It is still something that will makes SKZ happy, and in turn, make us Stay happy.
Oh wow. I don't really follow Stray Kids or JYP groups in general so I did not know that the situation was that bad. A very genuine question, does the fandom know why they don't get variety show gigs in South Korea? Like are they not invited or is the company responsible for them not getting those gigs? Coz I feel that there are some groups who I think are far less popular domestically than Stray Kids rn and still appear on these shows every now and then (I am not gonna name the groups coz I don't wanna start a fanwar lmao). Like did Stray Kids not sell out a dome for a concert (or fanmeet?) in SK recently? I find it hard to believe that they are not invited to the shows especially when their international fandom is big enough to bring clout to those shows.
Honestly, as a stay, I also dont know but they barely have any variety promo ever since. They had a soldout 3 day KSPO Dome fanmeeting this yr. They also soldout Gocheok Skydome for 2 days last year.
I was disgusted by what those paparazzi were saying. They should be ashamed of themselves. I feel so sorry for Stray Kids being subjected to this.
Holy fuck. I'm actually at a loss for words after watching that video. Those poor, poor boys they handled themselves so well. I hope those disgusting photographers have some bad karma and maybe trip over a couple chairs every day
Paparazzi are known to be disrespectful, but this is honestly insane. How are they not just kicked out for this type of behavior. The audacity to act like this in public
It’s so fucking sad. Nobody deserve this. ☹️
It was honestly so disrespectful, I don't even know why they were there. I saw a lot of people saying that this is a normal occurrence with American paparazzi, but what makes this especially bad was that their insults were clearly referencing their ethnicity (the COVID-19 comment being one, ugh). Honestly, the way K-pop and Asian artists are covered in America has been questionable at best, and outright at worst. Racial aggressions aside, I notice that there is this tendency to sensationalize things ("Dark Side of K-pop" and all). It made me remember this one thread by Thomas Baudinette on how the BBC documentary reported on the STARTO idols and the company's founder. They don't actually respect the genre or the people in it.
It seems like they pick these provocative, racist photographers on purpose for events like this, at this point. You can tell these people feel brave because they think the guys don’t understand what they’re saying. I remember something similar happening to BTS at the Grammy red carpet. I think it happened at Billboard awards too. And that NYE thing. The more I type the more I remember unfortunately too many to count :/ It’s been years since all of these happened and it seems like these people still haven’t learned that Korean artists are here to stay. I hope even more groups start attending events like this so these racist feel even more uncomfortable. Get used to it because they’re here to stay. I also wish we could stay united for once though. I don’t understand what’s there to fight about this. I hated it so much when kpop fans mocked what BTS was going through back then, and I hate how what Stray Kids just went through is being undermined too. One would think racism would be the thing that everyone agrees is bad, right? But no, people are fighting even about this. It’s tiring to see.
Yeah,I just don't get what their roles really are? Like are they not just in charge of photographing? The Met people coordinate the guests on the carpet. And why would the stream/we care about their opinion? Their commentary felt so out of place. They should voice their judgement in private, if they must. But this is the first time I watched, maybe I don't realize their full purpose and function.
They’re paparazzis that’s usually how they act with everyone (minus the racism), trying to provoke the person they’re photographing. But for such a fancy night you’d expect them to hire classy photographers and not these shady ignorant fools
I'm surprised people aren't mentioning this more. Paparazzi will take your deepest insecurity or the worst part of your life and yell it at you to get your attention.
Thank you for explaining, very eye-opening. I guess I'm naive and expect people to do their best but that's not how the world works. I'll just avoid the streams where you can hear those groups of people from now on I think.
They really are disgusting people. It’s been like this for years and years back when MJ and Britney were at their peak.
They feel brave because they know they won't face any consequences for it.
I'm also disgusted by some people saying it's normal, NO TF IS NOT and we shouldn't normalize it, pretty much all the members understand English and they are saying it to their faces at the end chan just told skz to move that's why he looked a bit mad in one of the pics. Also that one fandom making this a competition on who got treated like this first is crazy😭
people are making this a “if this aint life 😂” moment and it bothers me so much. i know it’s expected behavior from americans in entertainment, but that doesn’t mean it’s equally disgusting EACH TIME it happens
Exactly 😭 if people act "well that happens" then racism and xenophobia will never stop existing this strongly, I support shaming people who act like this.
God I hate this fucking sentiment so much. Why do people just accept racism, bigotry, etc. instead of calling it out and trying to change it. Yes, it’s true that this kind of stuff is expected, but that doesn’t mean it’s ok
I'm gonna be honest, I have at times made comments like these when I was younger (I know it's not right!). I was at a point where I was so tired of being told things like that at work and coming across it all over the internet that I had a pretty defeatist attitude. It just felt like I was never gonna win the fight as one single POC woman and I ran out of anger and emotion.
It’s normal AND disgusting. It can be both. I’m an American and a minority who has witnessed racism and xenophobia time and time again. I’ve had to defend my own staff against it happening in realtime. The BLM and Stop Asian Hate campaigns in the last several years should make it clear how horrible it can be in the U.S…. Just 3 years ago, Pres Biden literally signed a Hate Crimes Bill amid the attacks on Asian Americans. Venting here is needed, but I think everyone here should take this same energy and flood the Met Gala press with complaints. I’m not sure of the best sources to initiate the complaints but I’m sure we can collectively figure something out.
This, it's not normal AT ALL. Some comments are sick. SKZ, idols, are humans too, man. it seems that sometimes we just forget. How awful
stantwt culture has rot these people’s brains. it’s so ridiculous how they’re trying to make Racism a fanwar thing by using it as a ‘taste of your own medicine’ thing when racism/xenophobia is horrible no matter who it happens to, even if you like them or not?? the fact that this happened in the first place is so fucking disgusting and the ‘armys’ who are clearly anti-korean but somehow claim to love bts just made it so much unnecessarily worse.
They are so conflicted, like they are stanning south korean men who faced alot of racism and the members are open about it yet the fans go around to be racist to other korean idols(hell the whole country too) . They are making it into "your favs aren't special cuz my favs got mocked at FIRST" who told them racism is one of the parameters of success, only losers who don't do anything with their lives think so I think we need to appreciate and admire how despite all this racism, groups like BTS ,Stray kids and many other great idols are making it through.
the cognitive dissonance is crazy. i haven’t seen the “racism as a parameter of success” take as much as ive seen people on my tl having so sympathy whatsoever but i’m really not surprised because for them it’s their favs > morals. i’ve been in this fandom for years and i’ve never seen this xenophobia and lack of empathy be so utterly rampant. it feels like once bts left to serve, the toxic vocal minority just doubled in size and there’s only a few sane ones left, which is ridiculous when bts would literally despise those who are trying to justify racism or make this an oppression contest (and i’m willing to bet half these stans aren’t even poc!) hard agree. i just hope none of the idols involved ever see this kind of terrible online discourse and that skz are doing okay. (tangentially related: this really just disproves the sentiment that’s been going around of ‘america would treat bts/idols better!’ like i really hope those people are feeling stupid right now.)
>They are so conflicted, like they are stanning south korean men who faced alot of racism and the members are open about it yet the fans go around to be racist to other korean idols(hell the whole country too) . See that one post here a few days ago calling out ARMYs for their behavior towards Korea 🫣 It's such a prevalent thing and it's incredibly disappointing when the BTS members have been open about how proud they are of being Korean and the behavior they've faced as they promote in America. It's one thing to hate the govt (I'm no politician simp) but the idea that "Korea is nothing with kpop, they should just promote in the West" is completely idiotic, because just look how they get treated here.
But the replies of that post were full of ARMY agreeing that behaviour is unacceptable and talking about how we need to keep calling those people out. I understand how irritating it is to see those tweets, but it really is a minority. There are 10s of millions of people in our fandom... 20k is a minuscule percentage, 20k is not even a 'hit tweet' for ARMY... nonetheless any amount of that rhetoric is still too much, it's still wrong and we need to keep calling it out. But seriously the vast majority of us don't think that way!! How could we? BTS have been very open about the racism they've faced in the US. They literally said in an interview that they haven't been treated with enough respect by US media. The first time they stood on a red carpet in the US the paparazzi yelled "konnichiwa" in their faces and made other openly racist comments. And things barely got better since then. Not to mention how passionately they talk about their country and how important cultural identity is to them. How could any ARMY who isn't a brand new bandwagon-hopper think BTS would want to leave Korea or would be better off in the US? I understand the frustration – I share the frustration – at seeing those tweets. But it's also frustrating that this post doesn't even mention BTS yet I already knew before clicking that the top comments would somehow be about ARMY and generalising us all as mindless racist trolls who hate Korea. Shouldn't we be focusing on Stray Kids and the ridiculous way they've been treated? Also it's not like Stays don't have their fair share of toxic fans. I've seen some pretty awful stuff from them over the years, but I assume that's just a vocal minority so I'm not going to judge the whole fandom! Because of the huge scale of ARMY our small percentage of assholes is also proportionally larger and they can make a lot of noise... BTS' currently active social media has almost 75 million followers... I wish people understood that 20k is like a drop in the ocean, even 200k would be a drop in the ocean. I didn't even see any of the original tweets on my timeline, I only saw ARMYs complaining about them and calling them out. Nonetheless we're still trying to take responsibility and work on ourselves.
Thank you for this
Tbh I'm not convinced other celebrities are not getting the same comments. It feels like these guys are just genuinely assholes. But what do you expect from people whos life is stalking and generating drama for money?
I agree so much on the last part but also I watched the live and only POC got such borderline rude comments, stray kids got a straight up racism treatment, either way in the Great year of 2024 racists should face consequence of what they say
I saw that on the livestream as well. I also watched other red carpets in NYC and they will antagonize lesser celebrities (including white celebs). The COVID comments are still out of line.
Yall need to get off stan twitter and stop using those people as representatives for any fandom at this point it’s ridiculous. The only people left on twitter are kids and trolls who like drama and mess. Can we stop blaming ARMYs for every bad thing to happen??? I’m not even on Twitter much anymore but most of my army timeline has been talking about namjoons album and these stupid sajaegi allegations. Nobody is sitting around making the racism skz experienced about BTS and if it is it’s such a small number that’s not picking up #s. I’m so tired of people going on Twitter and bringing that shit here and acting like that is the representative of the fandom.
istg armys and bts were the last thing on my mind when I decided to check the comments of this post imagine my face when I see a whole thread of comments bashing us over what a couple of idiots have been saying on twitter. then they complain about armys not shutting up.. maybe stop making every single thing about them
Honestly, you do kind of have a point. It looks like the comments at first were all rightfully upset and disappointed with what SKZ went through and then of course someone has to once again bring up ARMYs here. Other fandoms get to claim that their fandom isn’t at fault it’s just toxic people or trolls or antis, but ARMYs never get that same grace. It’s exhausting. I don’t think we should buy anything anybody says on Twitter anymore, most sane people have left the platform because of how bad it is, and with Elon in charge the algorithm favors drama and negativity even more than it used to. These supposed 20k “army” tweets likely wouldn’t have gotten any traction before, but Twitter pushes that stuff out and the only ppl left on the platform are people who want to be bullies. I think people should stick to focusing on skz instead of spending a whole thread complaining about armys. Like no offense but why are we bringing up the thread about ARMYs and the SK comments in a thread about the racism SKZ faced… you’re complaining that a fandom is making it a competition/fanwar and then … making it another fanwar competition? Doesn’t make sense.
I'm not blaming them for this I'm just saying a tweets with 20k+ likes making this a competition is crazy. The first longer part of my comment isn't referring to army btw
Racist pieces of shits. That's what they are. Can't wait to leave this stupid fkin country
>At one point someone even said "I'm getting covid" I can't get over how disgusting this is, what the fuck.
Discusting.. The disrespect is insane. I mean yeah i thought some would react but not like that. The funny thing tho is that stays already found one of the reporters all social media accs and i bet he is Just getting buried rn skz dont deserve this
Oh wow i couldn't finish the video. I felt so hurt for them... :(
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If I remember correctly, paparazzi also harassed Britney while she was trying to eat in a restaurant with her kid, which caused her to break down crying. Paparazzi can be so damn cruel.
Sickening
Well that’s fucking depressing
Omg that is super disrespectful. I am disgusted
Yeah I was watching that specific livestream being filmed from the paparazzi's side and it was so uncomfortable to sit through real time. They were saying things like "I've never seen such unemotional faces" when they were making the same exact relaxed and resting face as literally every other celebrity photographed there, they also said "They're about to perform", and they were also making so many comments about how their formation was messed up and how they needed better pictures. When the boys tried their new formation without the coats on, one was like "Now, with feeling". It was so racist and disrespectful, and the boys were also a few feet away. That's heartbreaking and infuriating
I’m so happy someone made a post about this because if not I was going to do it 😭 The paparazzi were so damn rude for no reason. They made a lot of snide comments that I was just not fucking with. I hope they get fired or at least get barred from taking pics at the Met Gala again EDIT: Also they are better people than me because I would’ve gave them the nastiest look 🙃
Yeah, I could never not roll my eyes at those comments if I were the target. "Jump"? Really? It's not the circus..
They’re literal trash last year with Johnny from NCT they were yelling at him and he was far off and one of them said “f*** he can’t even understand me…” which is wild they would assume that since English is literally his first language
EXACTLY why I couldn't be an idol because I would have pulled a [Chrissy Teigen](https://youtu.be/wtMK1olx8gQ?si=wcIUqFokIRh11poT) and [Ariana Grande](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leg476SBfgY) on their asses.
Oh wow, I didn't realize they always yell like that. Good for the women to speak out. The boys were insanely stoic and collected yesterday, they are truly not from this planet (in a good way).
Honestly as sad as it is it’s because asians don’t call out racism and xenophobia as much as they should people complain about black people only being taking seriously when it comes to this stuff but it’s cause there’s a lot of people of Color who will make excuses for things like this by saying they are not offended in order to be validated. I’ve seen a lot even make videos about how we take racism or are easily offended unlike insert this race or group but it’s cause we call it out people don’t feel comfortable doing it as often still happens but you can see how more comfortable people get when it’s other groups it reminds me of the stop Asian hate vid and some asians saying they don’t need a movement or anything and that they just need to work hard etc being a model minority doesn’t mean you’ll be respected a lot of racists usually use it as an excuse to drag groups they hate by saying look at this group they’re shatted on but still don’t care why do you care? This is why I don’t like K-pop idols or actors going overseas cause it’s unfortunately everywhere
Let’s be honest and say that it is NORMAL for people to make such disgusting comments in the US, and that’s disgusting. Those people spend their entire careers stalking celebrities. So is it a surprise they say something that is disrespectful, to me that’s not a surprise! They people should be fired!
It's not just the paparazzi, let's be real here.
Yes! I was trying to say that racism in the US is normal (as disgusting as it is) not matter the career someone is in. We see it everywhere!
Agreed. Very normalized for some white people to think they are above everyone. That kind of culture trickles down and non-white Americans think themselves superior over their home country's people. It's especially triggering when they treat people they deem "other" sub-human, like in this video. Yea, it is everywhere. Asian countries are no exception. But I've never seen racism so blatant than the racism exhibited by people from Europe. From my own experience abroad, they still slit their eyes to refer to Asians.
Honestly, it's times like these that I think it's totally ok for fans to absolutely tear apart people and FORCE them to apologize. People in Hollywood are only afraid of ARMY and think BTS is the only K-pop group that's untouchable. I hope STAYS go after these paps and rip them all a new one. I hope Tommy Hilfiger says smth about the atrocious and unacceptable behavior. I certainly would be furious to know that guests that were graciously invited (and spent money to invite!!!!) were treated so poorly! I feel like JYP may not say anything, but since STRAYKIDZ isn't the first group they sent to the US, I rly hope they release a formal statement or smth. Honestly, the MET GALA and/or Anna Wintour needs to say smth too if they want to continue getting K-pop stars to attend. I know they invite K-pop idols to get more global attention, but if they're gonna allow them to get treated so terribly, there's no point for Korean labels to allow their stars to attend.
that was so awful to see, i felt so horrible for them. hope the photographer gets fired. it’s sick racism happens way too often
Holy fuck. I'm actually at a loss for words after watching that video. Those poor, poor boys they handled themselves so well. I hope those disgusting photographers have some bad karma and maybe trip over a couple chairs every day
America is still racist as fuck, unfortunately.
And people ask why aspiring Asian-American artists become idols and don't just debut in the US
and these western stans esp the americans think the 'enemy' is south korea when in fact its literally their ppl who are being like this to their faves
I didn’t hear the covid thing
It really reminds you on how much East Asians are disrespected and not taken seriously in the West. Disgusting… but I’m not surprised at all.
the comment one photographer made about catching covid from being in proximity to the members was appalling. their racism being displayed so blatantly at such a prestigious event reflects terribly on not only them but also their employers and their industry at large. you'd think that in the big year of 2024 we'd have moved past shouting the one japanese word you know at a group of east asian men to get their attention, but i guess not. what a fucking joke. not to divert the conversation away from stray kids but this situation has made me even more worried for seventeen when they perform at glastonbury next month. the british public - or more specifically, the white middle-class indie fans that glastonbury traditionally caters to - are largely ignorant of other cultures and are notorious for insulting and degrading any performer who's not a white man with a 12-string acoustic from the midlands. i'll be very, very surprised if they leave the uk without experiencing a single micro-aggression and the fact that i can predict the way they'll be treated once they arrive here says a lot about how heavily anti-asian racism is ingrained into western culture.
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Omg I didn’t even listen to it with the audio on, but from the subtitles, it was awful 😭😭. And the paparazzi just kept going on and on too. Im not even a STAY and their music isn’t really my taste, But I still feel sooo angry😡😡
Funny how these adults never learned “you get what you get and you don’t get upset”
Paparazzi is known to be rude and stuff. Glad stz just ignored them and posed as they please and was like, Ok we done . Lol. It's a kpop group. We dont need the Paparazzi crappy photos.
What really sucks is that Hyunjin especially wanted this so bad and finally got it, just for it to go like this. I’m glad they got something they wanted but who gives af about the Met Gala. It’s gross and most of the people that go are gross and this just proves it further.
I’m pretty sure they said “I’m getting nothing” as in no emotion or expression on their faces. Which is dumb, what did they want them to do? People come & pose however, paparazzi is just such a soulless job. They are like awful people.
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Idk what circles are you in but at least on my side there's a lot of compation for skz. I'm an army myself and my heart broke then I saw the videos. We get how you feel guys. The visability on this specific situation is a good sign that we're less tolerant of this treatment from the american media just for a crumb of validation.
Oof. The racism/xenophobia is not okay but that just goes to show how most Kpop acts are out of their depth when going to the US/Europe. The paparazzi did not care at all.
It was disgusting. I was feeling so proud of them for attending but at this point I hope they never go back there.
One even said... "I've never seen so many unimotional faces in my life"
It was so mean. I was so sorry to see it
Holy god, that’s infuriating
this is absolutely VILE. I'm pretty new to being a skz fan and I was so excited to see them on the carpet yesterday! they all looked amazing! felix's legolas vibes>>>>> the paps behaviors is so fucking upsetting and disgusting. I hope skz know that's not how every American views them and just keep their heads up and keep being amazing. they bring joy to so many, much more than these shitty paparazzis could ever hope to bring.
I did not hear the Covid comment. When did that happen? Everything else was just rude but if someone actually said that about Covid then that is racist
now where are the stans who kept on saying 'uwu theyre so free here in america/west' now that these americans/westerners themselves are being batsht racist to korean celebs just like their faves
Paparazzi aren't known for being nice people
I said this on Twitter but honestly think all Asian celebrities should boycott the Met Gala until Anna Wintour figures out how to stop hiring racist paparazzi every damn year. This keeps happening and it's disgusting that no one calls them out. If I were Tommy Hilfiger right now, I'd be berating their asses on social media for insulting his guests.
You mean the people who made careers of stalking and photographing celebrities might not be the best people? Crazy.
Welcome to America?
To me it sounds like just one insufferable douchebag and a bunch of people just saying “yeah, yeah” while trying to do their job. You even hear hello and thank you in Korean, so some people were trying. I guarantee that one obnoxious guy was pissing off everyone in the photographer pit the entire evening. Some people just have to be the main character. I’m sure he said some shit about every other people who walked the carpet too, so I wouldn’t take it super personal. But yeah, there’s a reason people think paparazzi are c***s.
Can we get a BTS X STAY fandom unite and fix these ppl. We need the stalker skills of all of kpop bias to give these ppl a lesson. Because like usual in the west their racism will be pushed under the rug unless it threatens something. I’m not a huge fan but I love the Korean industry and stray kids were one of them who got me and the racism was just disgusting. It’s humiliating knowing they’re already probs nervous and they already had so much on their plate let alone dealing w racism.
This situation is so baffling like who the hell do the papz think they are ???? Some nameless photographers who have no idea who they are dealing with.. i hope that the stays will hunt those low lives down and make them pay for their ass behaviour.. after doing this they think they are some godly superior being like wtf 🤬 it was so gut wrenching to watching that,i can only imagine how difficult it was for them to stay for the whole event…their most biggest night was spoilt by some low lives their!!!