EXO’s Chen Makes A Racist Remark During Live Broadcast

EXO‘s Chen made a remark during a live broadcast, and now there’s a hot debate on Twitter due to confusion over the English translation of the comment.

Did Jongdae say KUNTA KINTE?
SOMEONE SAY IT AIN'T SO
SOMEONE TELL ME IM HEARING WRONG. pic.twitter.com/FK19EmPAEg

— Ᏸ𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵 (@yungbrittbrat) April 15, 2018

 

During a live stream of Saturdays Also with EXO-CBX, Baekhyun decided to put dark lipstick on Chen. Chen, laughing at Baekhyun’s excessive over-lining, said “isn’t this Kunta Kinte?”

 

“Kunta Kinte” refers to the Roots main character, a slave who is taken from his home country and forced to work in America. The miniseries first aired in 1977 and became a pop culture hit, with Kunta Kinte becoming a household name and symbol for black empowerment.

A remake of the popular miniseries was made in 2017, bringing it’s message back into cultural circulation in light of the racial controversy in the US.

 

To refer to a person with thick, dark lips as “Kunta Kinte”  is not only a racist remark but also undermines the character’s symbolic and cultural significance.

 

Chen also mentioned that he looked like Michol, a character from the 1983 cartoon Dooly The Little Dinosaur who is already surrounded by a lot of controversy for it’s racist representation.

michol IS NOT just a character and this isn’t a fandom issue, chen deliberately mocked an entire race by saying he looked like michol, a RACIST SYMBOL in korea that SO many people use to mock black people, even doing black face on variety shows/tv saying they’re imitaiting michol pic.twitter.com/SJqLBtHUYC

— 𝕞𝕖𝕝 (@fruitsjin) April 15, 2018

 

Impersonations of Michol have famously disgraced networks like TvN when APink‘s Bomi appeared in blackface as the character on SNL back in 2017.

 

But there has been a lot of confusion by netizens who think Chen didn’t say “Kunta Kinte”, since the English subtitles translated, “My lips look too plump!”

im SO MF confused .. this whole issue could go both ways, it could be korean and him saying ‘ my lips are too plump’ but it could be him saying ‘this isnt kunta kinte’ bc they didnt translate .. pic.twitter.com/JqFLukm2GM

— coon genocide activist (@yixinghs) April 15, 2018

 

Some flat out refused to believe he said anything offensive.

It's simple..you're hearing wrong and everybody who thinks this is what he said is simply hearing what they want to hear.
At this point, I feel sorry for all the miserable people thinking stuff like this. pic.twitter.com/jAkQHwTTmA

— #Positive #The_Start (@MultFanboyTay) April 15, 2018

 

But others pointed out that the subtitles in Korean also claim that Chen said “Kunta Kinte”.

since some dumb eggs are claiming that kunta kinte is a korean word here is vlive’s korean sub, which clearly says 쿤타킨테 (kun-ta-kin-te) aka the name of the black slave, surprise! specifically he says “이거 쿤타킨테 아니에요?” which means “isn’t this kunta kinte?” pic.twitter.com/GrnGNSptat

— 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫 (@vlushtae) April 15, 2018

 

A massive twitter war ensued when some fans decided to drop the group due to the offensive comment.

IF YOU’RE STILL ON JONGDAE’S SIDE AFTER HE SAID KUNTA KINTE BLOCK AND UNFOLLOW ME RACIST MOFOS

— NᎪᎷᏓᎾᎾN ᎠᎬFᎬNᏟᎬ ᏚQᏌᎪᎠ (@Jooniestalicat) April 15, 2018

The fans who are leaving Jongdae and EXO because of this issue, go on. It’s your decision. It’s just disappointing that as fans you should know and understand him the most. What he said is not right but to drop the people you “loved” just like that?#PremiosMTVMiaw #MTVBRKPOPEXO

— 카이🌸 (@kjininihae) April 16, 2018

 

There were also claims that “Kunta Kinte lips” is a slang term in Korea for full lips. Newswire reported that people often get plastic surgery to reduce the thickness of lips because of bullying. One woman said she got her lips reduced because many of her peers teased her about her “Kunta Kinte lip”.

“I was called “Kunta Kinte lips” since I was a kid. I suffered a lot of bullying since elementary school because of my thick lips.” — Choi Sujin

 

An episode of makeover show Let Me In season 5 also had a woman called “Kunta Kinte girl” for her large lips.

 

The term also appeared when Korean rapper and singer Hwangbo posted this image with the caption: “I was always crying when I was young because the other kids would say I have full lips and would call me ‘Kunta Kinte’.”

A post shared by 황보 Hwangbo (@iam_still_beautiful) on Jan 6, 2017 at 10:42am PST

 

The term ultimately holds an offensive and negative tone. EXO-Ls are trying to help Chen realize the problem with these kinds of references.

In South Korea, “kunta kinte lips” is a slang term for full lips. It’s been like this for years. Since a lot of EXOLs are upset, just know that a KEXOL is going to be meeting Chen today and explain to him the situation in a letter. Let’s unite EXOLs, We are one. @weareoneEXO pic.twitter.com/M1DhjTV4tu

— Asia’s First Love { 카이 } (@exoelle88) April 15, 2018

 

Needless to say, many of his fans are disappointed in Chen for his remarks and ask him to apologize.

Y'all I'm a Jongdae biased person and I'm a huge ARMY. Chen f*cked up but that's not okay to ignore what he did. Namjoon plays NO and I MEAN NO part of what Jongdae did. Learn to educate your faves and keep Namjoon out of your filthy mouths. You people disgust me

— STAN 9 PERCENT (@Jinscollarbone) April 15, 2018

Chen said he looked like kunta kinte and michol in the same breath but the english subtitles covered up the Kunta Kinte part while all the other languages clearly say both Kunta Kinte and Michol. that's racist shit there

Unfollow my ass if you think he did nothing wrong

— chris『0416』 (@tristfultae) April 15, 2018

If Chen doesn't do a deep bow and show serious remorse I'm an #OT8 stan from now on. And don't say I never liked Chen you will never ever catch me saying one bad thing about Chen or any member. I've always loved all members. This is serious. Slave jokes are serious.

— STREAM "VROOM VROOM" on Spotify #BloomingDays 🌻 (@longslongjiyong) April 15, 2018

 

SM Entertainment has not released a comment regarding the broadcast, and no EXO member has addressed it.