Two Black fans shared a video of them being skipped over for high-fives at a Seoul music festival that Korean artist Crush performed at on October 9.
K-pop fans on Twitter were furious after claims were made that South Korean R&B artist Crush ignored two Black fans when he was high-fiving other fans at the Korean festival 2022 SOMEDAY PLEROMA.
Twitter user @tulipyeo said in a now privated tweet: “sooo i have decided 2 post it..here it is! the ppl crush says “no” 2 is my roommate n i, u can c my hand go down (i have dark skin so it stands out) right after. i dont think crush should “get away” w this. i want other ppl 2 know what he did”.
it's over for crush.
he purposely skipped them.
he lied on his instagram apology.#crushmustfall pic.twitter.com/Gaf7kxSZW4— Sam Skye (@Yado031) October 10, 2022
Later the Twitter user’s roommate (@brinaxv) who was also at the event chimed in to say in a tweet (now privated ): “ yeah… i’m the roommate. for this to happen to us firsthand really broke my heart. i’ve never experienced blatant discrimination like this in my entire life. especially since he was my favorite artist, it hurts so bad.”
The Korean artist released a statement a day later addressing the incident. Claiming the reason he skipped over them was because he “had to refrain from giving out high-fives with the fans in particular sections as a safety precaution”.
“I sincerely apologize for the misunderstanding that my actions may have caused. I love each and every one of my fans and I would never discriminate nor favor anyone, he says another part of the statement .
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Though further controversy ensued as people discovered that the artist had in the past participated in Blackface. While on the Korean show “King of Masked Singer” Crush wore a mask of Michol ( who is widely considered to be a Black caricature) from a popular 90’s Korean cartoon.
the "excuse" was that the mask is based off the korean cartoon Michol… which is also just sambo lips and blackface 😪 pic.twitter.com/hc0qyA3L4z
— Han (they/them) (@hanisdumb) October 10, 2022
Making matters worse some on Twitter noted that the singer deleted his former posts about the Black Lives Matter movement from 2020.
People are saying crush deleted his Black Lives Matter posts… him choosing to delete them right now is veryyyy racist like wtf??!! pic.twitter.com/unft3gLwZW
— Emz 💛 (@minyoontiddies) October 10, 2022
This incident isn’t the first time Black K-pop fans have complained about discrimination coming from Korean artists or within fandoms—and it will likely not be the last.