The deep rooted issues with Black face characters in korea and why they exist (an educational thread)

South korea has a few black face characters such as “Michol” who is based off of 70s Michael Jackson, (a black man) and “sesame seed” who is a light skin woman with big lips and “ugly” features (i don’t know if that’s her name for sure)

but these aren’t just characters, they are black face characters, very different from black cartoon characters, they have exaggerated large lips and big noses and their personalities are described as “lazy, funny, lost, ignorant, superstitious, or cowardice.

these characters were not made for inclusiveness or for diversity, they were made for comedy or pushing a stereotype onto black people. which goes back to where most black sterotypes began. Minstrel Shows. during the jim crow era of the United states.

Minstrel shows are the foundation of black stereotypes in as far back as 1830. where white people dressed as black people. similar to koreans dressing as michol.

not only this but Blackface doesn’t stop at people in real life dressing as black people. it’s actually some of the foundation of animation. mickey mouse is said to be created after a racist character called “jigaboo”

black face characters were never created to include black people in media and entertainment but to serve as the entertainment, or be the butt of the jokes. as their blackness is the joke, and their black features is the joke.

with sesame seed having light skin, doesn’t make her a non blackface character. Her described wide nose and big lips to be “african”and “ugly” is highly offensive still today and there’s no denying she is based off of black people.

saying, “oh the character is not black, it’s not blackface” does not work in this situation. because slapping black features on something to be “funny” is black face.

and this is why we saw such black lash from gucci last year about their mask. their mask looks almost like the actual masks they used for black face back in the early years.

(on the right is an actual black face mask that is in the museum of african american history)

this is very important for people to know, since it seem a lot of you don’t know why black stans become so mad when we see or hear about or idols comparing themselves to these characters. it’s deeply rooted racism and sterotypes

idols and koreans themselves probably don’t even know how much deep racism there is in images like this because it’s been in their movies and tv shows for decades at most, but it’s time we start talking about it.

that’s all i have to say.