Why Eatyourkimchi is Offensive (Updated)
Tagged their video about Troublemaker, āHyuna the stripperāĀ (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 āsluttyā in the Troublemaker mv in order to make more money
White and English-speaking Privilege/Ethnocentrism
Refuse to try to improve their KoreanĀ despite living in Korea because āthey donāt need to,ā 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 donāt need to learn the language because theyĀ āshow respect to KoreaāĀ by making their gross videos about how weird Korea is
Despite the fact that they donāt care to improve their Korean beyond what they need to get by, they rate idolsā EnglishĀ and mispronounce idolsā namesĀ (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 donāt even write her name the same way consistently; they alternatively refer to her as Soo Zoo, SooZee and SoozeeĀ throughout their website.
In their recurring WANK segment, they compete to see who can find the best āengrishā
Described elements of the Troublemaker as āsuper ghetto old spy gearā and thenĀ flat-out denied that them using the term āghettoā to describe something cheap looking had any racist or classist connotations
Put on black face masksĀ as a ājokeā 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 alsoĀ joke about having a separate rating for idols āgangsta EnglishāĀ (read: AAVE)
Call things āgangsta,ā āghettoā and āhoodāĀ but deny these words have a racial or class connotation
Dressed like āgangstasā for a skitĀ where they talk about YGās cultural appropriation by imitating it
Joked that T-araās fandom name should be T-artards
Played a game with other youtubers that they calledĀ 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 āI guess saying that out loud (a negative tweet about GOT7) makes us Hitlerā and blocked the person who told them that their tweet was offensive to Jews.
Mocking/Disrespecting Idols
Called B.A.P āBitch Ass PussiesāĀ for crying as part of their acting in the 1004(Angel) mv (Martina went on to say āThatās right, an old white lady just scolded you for being pussiesā)
Regularly mock and belittle the idols that they āreview,ā often for decisions that are not even under the idols control (for example, mocking BTSās album title and B.A.Pās mv storyline)
Did an interview with SHINee thatĀ SM told them not to post, which they did anyway and wrote aĀ very entitled postĀ about how they should be accommodated as vloggers.
Mocking/Disrespecting Fans
Put a fanās fanart on their website without giving creditĀ to the artistĀ and then ignored the artistsā 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 authorsā permission
Dressed Simon up as a female fan called āFangurillaāĀ 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 arenāt 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
Called Seungri a āpedobearā
A few good critical posts about EYK (first three from owning-my-truth, last fromĀ jalmotaesseo)
Explanation of why their ājokeā blackface was harmful
Rebuttal to common defenses of EYK
List of things EYK has done and a screenshot ofĀ them mocking a commenter who criticized them
And this isnāt 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.Ā
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.