SUNEHRA SUBAH

On a recent episode, the character Han Dal Sik, a Korean man, was wearing dreadlocks with Pan-African colors on his shirt. A Korean customer acts scared of a Black man upon him entering the shop, and then the Black man and Han Dal Sik begin to dance around and sing claiming they're from the "Jamaican family" when the Black man says he's from Nigeria. This scene alone has managed to portray Black men as 1. something to be scared of and 2. savage and goofy. In this show, a Black man's race is used as the punchline. They are either made fun of or portrayed as a threat. The writers are so lazy and ignorant, they write Jamaica and Nigeria as the same country.  This isn't the first racist "joke" written into the drama. In the first episode of Backstreet Rookie, flies come out of a "reggae man's" dreadlocks. The writers portray Black men as stupid and dirty. Although some may pass these scenes off as jokes, they are seeds of the epidemic of racism. Perpetuating these stereotypes is the same thing minstrel shows and cartoons did in America. This cycle of racism, always writing the Black man as the amusing, comical, foolish, dangerous, brutish caricatures has to stop. A step is you reading this and taking it seriously and doing things to stop and prevent this same narrative. Stop writing Black men as animals.  We have seen how these "jokes" have led to the deaths of Black men, women, and children. People see Black lives as conditional. When they hear of police brutality or hate crimes, they ask: "but what was the Black person doing?" This may be one character in one K-drama, but it impacts thousands and thousands of viewers. It dehumanizes Black people. South Korea does not have an anti discrimination law. Do something to protect and bring justice to Black people. Do something to rewrite the story.