SM Entertainment Privates aespa Video After Outcry Over Giselle Mouthing A Racial Slur
A behind-the-scenes video for the making of aespa‘s title track “Savage” has been privated by SM Entertainment following fans’ outcry over a scene that showed Giselle mouthing a racially offensive word.
The scene in question shows Giselle, Karina, and Ningning listening to SZA‘s “Love Galore” during a break in their photoshoot. At the point in the lyrics where the n-word is used, fans noticed that Giselle did not stop lipsyncing the song and even leaned forward when mouthing the word.
The video quickly spread and gained over 1.5 million views, causing fans to voice their thoughts on why the clip had been so upsetting.
… https://t.co/MNmc3NcsSn pic.twitter.com/9EvwS616y0
— rayne (@flrtyvs) October 23, 2021
MYs voiced their disappointment with Giselle as an English speaker and sought to educate the idol on why her actions hurt fans so deeply—especially those of Black descent.
in today’s savage jacket behind the scenes video, giselle was seen lip syncing to a racial slur in SZA's Love Galore. we will not defend this and we hope that she acknowledges her mistake and apologises to those she has hurt.
— ً (@aespapic) October 23, 2021
Giselle attended an International school in Japan and thus knows English and has been exposed to Western Culture. What she did was very wrong and it is imperative that SHE realizes this
— aespresso #Savage (slow) (@aespresso_SM) October 23, 2021
Although Giselle has yet to address the issue, SM Entertainment has seemingly heard fans’ voices and not only privated the behind-the-scenes video but also deleted the tweet on aespa’s official acccount that linked to it.
No official statements have currently been made on the issue.