The recent act of white police officer knelt on George Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American who died on May 25 in Minneapolis, had created waves of online protests and has pushed people to organize offline gatherings in South-Korea. The artists from South-Korean and Korean-American artists from the music industry have extensively participated in the Black Lives Matter movement, expressing their solidarity and anger towards the institutional racism on black communities in the United States. Black communities and their supporters in Korea are to take to social media on Saturday at noon, demanding justice for George Floyd’s death.
While the primary responses to the tragedy came from Korean-American and hip-hop artists, the impact has grown significantly to many different artists using their platforms and inspiring their fans to donate, act as allies, even asking them to sign online petitions and take action in the name of Black Lives Matter.
“Nobody wants to admit it cause they are all afraid of taking responsibility for countless years of unjust inhumane treatment,” Park said about the recent incident occurred in Minneapolis.
Crush is among the K-pop recording artists to raise their voices via social media. The singer, hip-hop star posted an image on Monday that said, “It is not enough to be quietly non-racist, now is the time to be vocally anti-racist.” Along with the image, Crush mentioned: “Many artists and people around the world get so much inspiration from black culture and music, including me. We have a duty to respect every race.”
Eric Nam, an American artist, also quickly showed his support for the Black Lives Matter movement, pointing the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery as proof that “RACISM IS NOT DEAD.” The Atlanta native added, “George and Ahmaud are just two of the countless number of black men and women who have lost their lives senselessly.” He also shared a petition demanding justice for Floyd.
Mark Tuan of boy band GOT7 told his 5.4 million Twitter followers to “stay strong, stay safe” and shared a link to resources for donating, get more information and make an impact. The singer-rapper donated $7,000 to the George Floyd Memorial Fund and Jae of K-pop/rock group DAY6 shared a link to support Black Lives Matter causes alongside his $1,000 donation.
Amber Liu an American singer of Korean descent tweeted “Been long sick of Trump constantly promoting racism. We need to stand together because our brothers & sisters of the black community are dying just for existing & no justice is being served. We need to make sure their voices are heard & that there will be justice.”
A War between Trending Hashtags
BlackOutTuesday vs. #WhiteOutWednesday
(#BlackOutTuesday is an initiative on social media to stand in solidarity for Black Lives Matter movement, and #WhiteOutWednedsay is a movement run by white supremacists that perpetuates racism by turning a blind eye to issues Black Americans face on a daily basis) On Wednesday, hashtags such as #Whiteout Wednesday, along with white supremacist hashtags like #WhiteLivesMatter, #MAGA, and #BlueLivesMatter—filling the feed with videos of performances from Korean pop stars with the hope of drowning anti-protest rhetoric and distracting the protest against the cause, although those tweets failed to overwhelm the community.
The latest initiative by K-pop fans to support BLM and fight white supremacists emerged within hours of the creation of #WhiteoutWednesday, jamming it and a number of other hashtags. K-pop fans have emerged as an overwhelming force on social media and have used hashtags of #BlackLivesMatter and were able to give it a fair defeat.
Many social media users appreciated the K-pop community’s tongue-in-cheek effort to hit racism on Wednesday, with thousands of users liking tweets about the takeover
A Demonstration is going to be Held Today.
A demonstration will be held in Seoul, demanding justice for the black victims, after the death of George Floyd.
According to multiple social media posts, participants will organise outside City Hall Station in central Seoul at 4 p.m. and march towards the U.S. Embassy near the Gwanghwamun area. The posts call for participants to wear shirts with “Black Lives Matter” and “George Floyd” in Korean and English with the hashtags on them.
Black communities and their supporters in Korea are to take to social media on Saturday at noon, demanding justice for George Floyd. The participants are to post pictures of themselves in T-shirts with “Black Lives Matter” in Korean and English with the hashtags — #GeorgeFloyd and #BlackLivesMatter — in both languages. They will also wear masks saying “I can’t breathe” in both languages. The organizers said that some 900 people who had bought the presold T-shirts were expected to join the online rally as per The Korea Herald, a leading English Newspaper of South-Korea.
Another similar event is scheduled for 1 p.m. on June 19 which is Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, commemorating the same day in 1865 when all enslaved African Americans were liberated from slavery, 2 1/2 years after the end of the US Civil War as per The Korean Herald, a leading English Newspaper of South-Korea.
