Why Eatyourkimchi is Offensive (Updated)
Tagged their video about Troublemaker, "Hyuna the stripper" (and then claimed it was ok because it was just a joke)
Slut-shamed Hyuna, called her a stripper again and stripped her of her agency by claiming that CUBE was forcing Hyuna to act “slutty” in the Troublemaker mv in order to make more money
White and English-speaking Privilege/Ethnocentrism
Refuse to try to improve their Korean despite living in Korea because “they don’t need to,” claim that the main reason non-Korean speakers learn Korean is to find a Korean significant other, and romanticize the fact that they refuse to improve their Korean.
Also claim that they don’t need to learn the language because they "show respect to Korea" by making their gross videos about how weird Korea is
Despite the fact that they don’t care to improve their Korean beyond what they need to get by, they rate idols’ English and mispronounce idols’ names (also something that has happened more than once)
They only have one actual Korean person working with them as a translator and personal assistant, and they don’t even write her name the same way consistently; they alternatively refer to her as Soo Zoo, SooZee and Soozee throughout their website.
In their recurring WANK segment, they compete to see who can find the best “engrish”
Described elements of the Troublemaker as “super ghetto old spy gear" and then flat-out denied that them using the term “ghetto” to describe something cheap looking had any racist or classist connotations
Put on black face masks as a “joke” and claimed that they believe blackface is inappropriate even though their video is literally called 4D Black Face Mask. Even if the product was not intended as blackface, their insensitive jokes about blackface are definitely harmful and offensive. For an explanation, see here.
In addition to rating idols English, they also joke about having a separate rating for idols “gangsta English” (read: AAVE)
Call things “gangsta,” “ghetto” and “hood” but deny these words have a racial or class connotation
Dressed like “gangstas” for a skit where they talk about YG’s cultural appropriation by imitating it
Joked that T-ara’s fandom name should be T-artards
Played a game with other youtubers that they called Gender Bender, where they showed them pictures of kpop idols and make them guess their gender (and then made fun of how feminine the men looked and how masculine the women looked)
Anti-Semitism (maybe not overt, but offensive language/jokes)
Tweeted “I guess saying that out loud (a negative tweet about GOT7) makes us Hitler” and blocked the person who told them that their tweet was offensive to Jews.
Mocking/Disrespecting Idols
Called B.A.P “Bitch Ass Pussies” for crying as part of their acting in the 1004(Angel) mv (Martina went on to say “That’s right, an old white lady just scolded you for being pussies”)
Regularly mock and belittle the idols that they “review,” often for decisions that are not even under the idols control (for example, mocking BTS’s album title and B.A.P’s mv storyline)
Did an interview with SHINee that SM told them not to post, which they did anyway and wrote a very entitled post about how they should be accommodated as vloggers.
Mocking/Disrespecting Fans
Put a fan’s fanart on their website without giving credit to the artist and then ignored the artists’ attempts to contact them
Asked viewers to send them links of their favorite fanfic, which they implied they were going to use in an upcoming video without necessarily having the authors’ permission
Dressed Simon up as a female fan called "Fangurilla" to make fun of kpop fangirls. (In addition to being insulting to kpop fans, their main demographic, this is also transmisogynistic, which is worse.)
Tweeted about the entire BTS fandom being shitty and then deleted it (ignore the joke on the tweet in question, the important thing is the screenshot of the deleted tweet)
Despite saying that they aren’t experts on Korean culture, make videos about Korean culture and cast judgement on it without actually deferring to actual Korean people
Called Eric Mun of Shinhwa a pedophile for appearing in a Teen Top mv
A few good critical posts about EYK (first three from owning-my-truth, last from jalmotaesseo)
Explanation of why their “joke” blackface was harmful
Rebuttal to common defenses of EYK
List of things EYK has done and a screenshot of them mocking a commenter who criticized them
And this isn’t even everything; this is just a list of the most egregious things they have done and the first links that I found. But if you read any of their blog posts or watch any of their videos, you will find a sense of privilege, entitlement and lack of respect for the Korean culture that they are profiting off their misrepresentation of, in addition to casual racism, misogyny, slut-shaming and ableist language.
If I missed anything or you have any additional examples or sources, please message me and let me know. If you support EYK and see nothing wrong with the things they have done, please save yourself the trouble of sending me anon hate and just unfollow me.
amandla
stormborns
origamiaround
yousharknotpass
tangentwithtanner
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