Six Black people with experience living in Korea share their thoughts on the Sam Okyere controversy

Article: "How is blackface any different from the rising sun flag" The advice of the Okyeres of Korea

Source: Joongang Ilbo via Naver [video in source]

1. [+3,299, -294] So they can forgive Black people slanting their eyes but they can't forgive Asians for doing blackface!!!!! So it's okay if you do it but not when others do it ㅋㅋ

2. [+2,887, -92] They're right that we didn't fully acknowledge the implications of racism and blackface, and that it is something we need further introspection on. However, if Okyere-ssi truly felt a love and understanding for Korean culture and felt that Koreans needed more education on racism, then he should've explained the historical context behind blackface and why it's considered racist on his SNS. Instead, he wrote different posts in English and Korean and tried to make a mockery out of Koreans internationally, and tagged the post with a hashtag that puts down our country. I personally consider this case a showing of his true colors, and I find it very disappointing.

3. [+2,188, -56] When the US was recently going through its issues with racism due to the excess use of force on Black people, who were the ones who looted Asian businesses and single out Asians to assault? When the virus started going around, who were the ones who spat on Asian elderly, injure them, and put them down for the color of their skin? Has there ever been any Black person who asked others to stop the attacks on Asians because all lives matter too? Black people will speak up for issues like this but put down Asians behind everyone's back. It's selective racism, that's all.

4. [+1,046, -135] It feels wrong to compare blackface to the rising sun flag.. Blackface was once used as comedy and the Uijeongbu students did not have the intention to be racist at all. Yes, racism against foreigners exists in every country, and it's something we need to all work on. However, Okyere's intention was to put down Koreans and that's the issue we're having.. He needs to go back to his country if he's going to be putting us down like this.

5. [+347, -11] I admit that our ignorance is our fault but Sam Okyere is at fault for pulling in what wasn't necessary. I'm grateful for his criticism but that doesn't mean Asians don't have problems with Black people still. Black people claim "Black lives matter" but has anyone ever paid attention to the discrimination that Asians face? Why do they act like their own issues are such a big problem but not the issues of other races? Their activism feels more like "equality between black and white" rather than "equality for all races".

6. [+242, -8] Sam Okyere is an adult and he's trying to claim that he didn't know what his slanted eyes were or what tagging 'teakpop' meant all the while accusing high schoolers of blackface. This is a clear case of "it's okay if I do it but not when others do it", no?

7. [+232, -29] Comparing blackface to the rising sun flag... I'd understand if slavery was compared to the rising sun flag but not blackface. Blackface is definitely something we need to be more cautious of since it has racial implications but comparing it to the rising sun flag makes the argument lose credibility to me.

8. [+173, -5] Sam Okyere wanted to be funny = so he slanted his eyes = looks Asian. His intentions were to put down Asians because he thought they looked funny. As for the high school students, you can tell just from their pose that they were parodying the coffin dance and that they had no racist intentions whatsoever other than the color of their skin. That's why even the coffin dance man reposted their picture in a positive manner. You can't come to a country that has no history of Black slavery or discrimination and start demanding respect over a parody like this when we let you off the hook for your own racist action. He clearly thinks Koreans are an easy target, no?

9. [+120, -3] What Okyere wrote on his Instagram was not a simple post of criticism. You could tell that he was angry and that he wanted to put our country up on a chopping block for foreigners to see. If Okyere had just simply posted "don't do this next time~~~" as a message to the students, and without any of the hashtags, then we wouldn't have gotten the impression that he wanted to embarrass us on an international stage. By his logic, we were the fools for just letting him go the first time he was racist against Asians. We should've gotten as serious as he did and criticized him just the same, using hashtags and all.

10. [+98, -3] To the Black person who compared blackface to the rising sun flag, don't you think that's not an appropriate comparison? It'd be more appropriate to compare the rising sun flag to the Nazi symbol and blackface to other Asian racism issues. How can you put the two in the same line? And since when was Korea a nation that had anything to do in the history of racism against Blacks? We're a third party who have nothing to do with that history, and our students parodied something with no intention of being racist just like Sam Okyere slanted his eyes with claims of no intention of being racist. Now Sam Okyere is demanding that Korean students be educated on racism and branding our entire nation as racists... don't you think we're going ot be upset about that?

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