Content Creator Under Fire For Alleged Racism And Xenophobia Toward Popular Korean Band At 2024 Coachella
A content creator is going viral for the wrong reasons.
The first weekend of 2024 Coachella (also known as Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival) was held April 12-14 in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert.
ATEEZ made history as the first K-Pop boy group to perform at the famous music festival. Yet, they were not the only Korean groups who performed. K-Pop girl group LE SSERAFIM and Korean Alt Pop band The Rose were also among the performing artists.
.@ATEEZofficial hit 'em like Rocky
Tune in to the 2024 Livestream all weekend at https://t.co/j5uIbSOgaa pic.twitter.com/j7gY0zL7Mo
— Coachella (@coachella) April 13, 2024
TikTok user DB (@darian.marie) and their friend accidentally attended The Rose’s stage. The band was performing before American R&B singer-songwriter and rapper Jhené Aiko, who they wanted to get barricade to see. In the video, the two expressed disappointment in having to endure a performance they didn’t want to see. They laughed as if they were in an unexpected and “uncomfortable” situation.
So, we came to the stage to get front barricade for Jhené… We didn’t know who was performing right now. But it’s a little K-Pop group.
— Man in video
why is he whispering…. they need to speak up if they’re suffering so bad!! pic.twitter.com/CDEwHJLpAY
— gabs (@ilovetyunning) April 16, 2024
Netizens found it droll that the friends claimed they were in barricade. Clearly, in the video, they were behind many people.
fr bc i’m not seeing any barricade pic.twitter.com/yBQ5diaZKm
— gabs (@ilovetyunning) April 17, 2024
like where is the barricade….
— gabs (@ilovetyunning) April 17, 2024
Yet, that was the least problematic claims made by the friends in the video. The video garnered over 616K views on X (formerly Twitter) and 87.6K views on TikTok at the time of writing.
people who act this way.. why even go to festivals? go to your faves concerts and stop being weird. pic.twitter.com/fxF1Pr7NMe
— 🍠 (fan account) (@hyukalife) April 16, 2024
@thetinestatiny Like sorry maybe dont go to a music festival with different genre’s then maybe. If they think like this about korean artists i dont want to imagine the ugly mindset of latino artists they have in their minds and the op in the video giggling with her friend is @DB #therose #fyp #coachella
@yutachou #yutachou #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #kpop #kpopfyp #kpopforyou #kpopforyoupage #julie #kissoflife
Netizens called out the OP (Original Poster) for their ignorance. They pointed out that music festivals are all about listening to multiple acts and being exposed to new music. Besides, setlists were announced long ago, so people could be aware if they really wanted to attend or skip specific acts.
Netizens also believe that it was straight-up xenophobia and racism that OP referred to The Rose as “a little K-Pop group” when, in reality, they are a popular indie rock band. Although they have a fandom name (Black Rose) and lightstick, like most K-Pop groups, they are not K-Pop. It’s also ironic that OP would judge a band just for being Asian when Jhené is of mixed heritage, including Japanese.
Additionally, OP claimed on the video that they endured “two hours” of K-Pop. The Rose’s performance lasted only 45 minutes!
OP’s post has since been deleted after the initial backlash. Still, netizens are continuing to call them out.
good 😭 when i saw it people were already cooking them in the likes bad
— gabs (@ilovetyunning) April 17, 2024
they deleted lmao pic.twitter.com/kJ2qxpFm88
— gabs (@ilovetyunning) April 17, 2024
Besides deleting the original video, OP has limited comment access on their TikTok videos.