GOT7 Scandal (read BEFORE you judge)
I could have never said it better than this wow. It’s a combination of ignorance, peer pressure, and innocent decisions that ended up bad ones. Read before you judge, people, don’t start pointing fingers right out the gate.
“I don’t know where to start. I just found out about the situation about an hour ago, and I’ve been monitoring tweets and comments on articles and forums since then. I think I’ve got the basic gist of what’s happened, but feel free to correct me if I’ve missed something.
First off, I’d like to say that I am from Arcadia (but please don’t doxx me). I recognized several people from the pictures and videos, and I know what kind of people they are. I know what circle Mark came from before he was scouted. A small portion of people from Arcadia are ABGs and white-washed, and they could honestly care less about K-Pop and Korean culture. In these past few years especially, more and more underage people have been getting turnt and faded all of the time, and they’ll rave and go to kick-backs starting from freshman year of high school. It’s the sad reality. The N-word is tossed around like it’s nothing, especially because there is virtually no African-American presence in Arcadia. Most of Arcadia is made up of Asian-Americans and elderly Caucasians. We live in a bubble of sorts and most of us have had a very different high school experience from the typical American.
Most students from Arcadia High School don’t engage in this type of behavior, at least not until they enter college, but we’re definitely getting to the point where we are like a typical American high school now, just with a huge emphasis on academia. And I’ll say it outright: people from Arcadia and the San Gabriel Valley care a lot about their popularity, social media presence, and “likes.” So I’m not surprised that Mark’s friends took this grand opportunity to make their presence known to IGOT7s, knowing that their follower counts would instantly skyrocket. Joey and Jessica’s Instagrams are testament to that. As an Arcadian and a friend of Joey’s, I’m ashamed of their actions. They should’ve kept this private party to themselves, but of course they wouldn’t pass up such a goldmine for like-farming.
And apparently, their behavior during the concert was atrocious as well. They do not have experience with K-Pop concerts. For them, concerts are equivalent to raves and music festicals like Hard Summer, Electric Daisy Carnival, Coachella, etc. It’s normal to go these festivals while drunk and/or drugged, and to go completely wild in the audience. Not to mention, wearing minimal clothing is normal as well. So I’m honestly not surprised that they were apparently drunk and acting crazily, because to them, it’s what a normal music festival is like.
With Yugyeom’s situation, it’s tough to judge. Because yes, he was technically drinking as a minor in the United States. But in Korea, he is legal. And he might not have known about the alcohol age limit in America. (Not to mention, there were other underage drinkers at the party). Of course, he should have been informed, but let’s just give him the benefit of the doubt and say he didn’t know. There was likely a lot of peer pressure from Mark’s friends, being that it was a typical college party scene, and they probably told him to relax and take a couple of shots. As a foreigner who likely wanted to fit in with the “cool kids,” he probably took the shots. It’s funny to see your friends drunk, so the girls who SnapChatted him likely wanted to showcase this, forgetting that because Yugyeom is a K-Pop celebrity, things like this are going to heavily impact his and GOT7’s image negatively.
As for Bambam, I’m quite dismayed, but I can understand why he said it. Like I said earlier, Arcadia has a very small percentage of African-Americans living here. We do not know the trials and tribulations that the African-American community has undergone throughout centuries, because of the N-word and other derogatory terms. In pop culture, these racial slurs trend and so, because people want to be “edgy and cool,” they adopt these terms into their vocabulary. I’m almost postive that Mark’s friends were casually using the N-word to address each other and Bambam likely picked it up to fit in. In an environment like that, it’s very easy to be pressured into doing and saying small things like that. But that doesn’t excuse him for saying it whatsoever. As a celebrity with large followings in countries all over the world, it’s important to be aware of other cultures and the sensitive topics that should not be broached. The N-word is one of them. And considering that there have already been several controversies surrounding the N-word within K-Pop, most of these idols should be aware that this word should be immediately black-listed from their vocabulary. He could have used any other word in the English dictionary to address Mark while they were taking pictures, but he chose that one and I am extremely disappointed that he did. I can’t imagine how African-American IGOT7s and Bambam-stans must be feeling, to have this racial slur tossed around by someone they look up to and admire.
I’m not going to talk about Mark’s tattoo, because that’s really nothing in comparison to everything else that happened. And the whole Junior and Jessica thing is kind of unnecessary. I’m really glad Youngjae decided to stay at the hotel, because he also could’ve been easily influenced to drink as a minor in the United States, while being legal in Korea. And I’m extremely glad that JB and Jackson didn’t get caught up in anything either. Not to mention, Jackson’s probably having a hard time already with the whole support-China political issue happening. And no, I’m not going to get into that, because honestly, I am just so emotionally drained right now and that issue is a world of its own. I don’t even think I could write a well-informed post on that, because I don’t personally know the issues felt by those directly affected by this situation. And as a Chinese-American, I know Mainlanders get hated on for a lot of things and they do deserve it a lot of the times. I’m just going to respect the idols for whatever they decide to do, whether they speak up or not, because there might be a lot of things happening behind the scenes that the public is unaware of.
These past three hours have been crazy, with reading all of the articles, comments, and tweets about the Chinese politics and the GOT7 scandals. It’s just really sad that GOT7 has scandals now and that they happened in my city, because of the actions of my peers. I am honestly so done with K-Pop’s 2016.
(i might remove this post later because i really dont wanted to be doxxed, but we’ll see. so if you want this post to stay, please dont try and find out who i am. thank you.)”
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