THREAD: This is such a terrible "response" to the issue. Instead of apologizing for the racism in the song, the company just basically compiled a list of excuses, most of which being that this is just how things are in Korea. They're saying that the way they're depicting natives+ https://twitter.com/XRO_Official/status/1284403037751201792

in the song as well as how Korea depicts natives is respectful and comes from Korea believing that "Native Americans are strong." These ideas that they have about natives stem from racist caricatures of natives that are spread across the world through American media. +

There are countless examples of racist tropes present in so many films which include native "characters" (they're more like walking stereotypes). You can read more about it if you're interested in how anti-native so much media truly is but the sort of trope that the company is +

most likely referring to when they say that Koreans view Native Americans as strong and righteous is in line with the stereotype of a "noble savage" or a "stoic indian." This is still harmful, even if you may not initially see it that way. +

I could write for hours about how all stereotypes, whether you think they're positive or negative, are bad. You can read further about what exactly the stereotypical depictions of Native Americans in the media entail, but just know that these stereotypical depictions are harmful+

and have had lasting effects on how natives are seen in real life today in the US. So, the reason I mentioned the media in connection to this is because that's where people in other parts of the globe get some of their +

information about cultures other than their own. Right now, focusing on Korea and by extension East Asia, a lot of information specifically about Native Americans comes through media since they don't have personal history within their country to reference and I doubt they have a+

very comprehensive Native American history education in schools considering even history classes in the US barely bring up anything related to indigenous people. So, the only images these other countries are getting of natives are harmful stereotypes. +

This "apology" is a clear example of the effect that this kind of media has across the world. In the statement, they said "In East Asia, Native Americans are deemed to be cool, strong and righteous enough to stand against injustice" In other words, they don't see indigenous +

people as people but rather a concept, an idea. It's not okay. They say that the "gesture" used in the dance is considered fine in East Asia, but is offensive in the west. No, it's actually offensive everywhere! What they're really saying there is that it is normalized to do a +

racist gesture in East Asia. They said "There are many characters in East Asia that are designed with a Native American motif [that make] the same gesture." Here again you can see how racist characters from the west transform into racist characters in other parts of the world. +

So essentially their statement boils down to: being racist against Native Americans is fine in East Asia so that's why they thought it was fine. How is that even any sort of apology? It blows my mind. I am native and in my life I constantly see racism against natives not just +

in the US, but occurring around the world. It's normalized to the extent that many people don't even realize when it's happening. I really hope that more people educate themselves about this and I hope my thread was even a bit helpful in shining light on this issue.

(also this thread is definitely not perfect but i just had to say something about this statement)