Racist Against South Korea? — Netizens Lash Out At 2024 Paris Olympics For Continued Disrespect
On July 27, KST, Korean netizens took to online community sites to express their anger toward the Olympic committee and staff for what they felt was continuous disrespect.
The first mishap at the Olympics involving South Korea happened right during the opening ceremony, where French and English presenters introduced the country’s delegation by North Korea’s name. Many netizens saw it as a deliberate, racist microaggression.
- “It’s impossible that they didn’t know about this; it’s just plain racism. They completely stepped all over us.”
- “This coming from people whose country only has the Eiffel Tower and sewage water in the Seine River to offer…”
- “Racists.”
- “It seems like they really went through a lot of planning to be racist. Is this something that should happen at an international event?”
- “After seeing the Olympic flag hung upside down, it makes me think that maybe it was just done out of sheer stupidity and incompetence…”
The situation, unfortunately, didn’t just stop there. The official account of the Paris Olympics posted still photos of all teams during the opening ceremony on Instagram. While every other picture featured the respective country’s flag very clearly, for South Korea, the image they posted has enraged the public.
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South Korea’s photo on the Olympics account was taken from an angle that focused on the crowd gathered above the Seine River, rather than the delegation. There were two flags in the frame but they were completely out of focus and blurry.
Netizens, once again, expressed their anger at the Olympics in strong words.
- “Are they kidding or what.”
— “Really p*ssing me off, LOL. They can’t do a single thing properly.” - “South Korea’s national prestige has slowly melted away.”
— “Our flag isn’t even properly visible. Are they kidding? If you’re going to click pictures, do it properly.”
— “I guess they think that the people of this country are idiots because our President is an idiot.” - “Woah, what is this?”
- “At this point, it doesn’t seem like they misread (South Korea’s name).”
- “What are they doing?”
- “It’s p*ssing me off. What is this?”
- “Wow, what’s wrong with them?”
- “Wow. This really feels like sh*t.”
The anger and hurt of South Korean citizens has spilled over with a third mess up. On July 28, the official Instagram account of the Paris Olympics posted a picture of South Korean fencer Oh Sang Uk, congratulating him on winning a gold medal in men’s sabre. The post, however, misspelled his name as “Oh Sangku,” which was later corrected to the right spelling.
Netizens didn’t hold back their rage while calling out this blunder.
- “Apart from excelling at stealing sh*t, France doesn’t know how to do anything right. What a dumb country.”
- “It seems like the one in charge of their Instagram is an idiot.”
- “What are they doing?”
- “Are they a bit stupid?”
- “And they go around calling themselves a superpower… Tsk tsk.”
