I had to throw my 2 cents in here because fangirls are getting especially retarded, and with all the traffic hitting this article, I might as well write up a response to it all. That, and I'm fucking pissed at all the idiocy spiraling around this case.
Let's take a look at the original picture as originally posted by GD himself. It's still on Instagram, so GD either doesn't give a fuck about this mess or he is unaware of how "controversial" it is. (I'm betting on the former, to be honest.)
Several "explanations" exist for what's going on here, and most if not all of them are stupid.
First of all, I just want to say how fucking retarded it is that people think this is some kind of Trayvon Martin tribute in the first place. For one thing, not a single word was written by GD to even put some context to this picture. Instead, he chose to caption this with "X." Since X doesn't mean shit unless you put some wacky spin on it courtesy of confirmation bias, it's simply a picture of him with his face painted black with a T-shirt over his head like some goon. AND YES, THAT IS A T-SHIRT OVER HIS HEAD, NOT A FUCKING HOODIE LIKESOME MANY IDIOTS SEEM TO BE THINKING (LOOKING AT YOU, SPIN AND L.A. TIMES).
The fucking clothing tag is hanging out over his forehead, and you can clearly see that it's the cut of a T-shirt. So why do people jump to the conclusion that it's a grey hoodie instead of a shitty faded black T-shirt pulled over his head? Confirmation bias. Here's what the "logical" progression of events in the fangirls' minds looked like to get to this point:
Secondly, anyone who thinks this is some kind of facial pack is stupid as well. THIS is a facial pack of black substance (charcoal in this case)
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Let's take a look at the original picture as originally posted by GD himself. It's still on Instagram, so GD either doesn't give a fuck about this mess or he is unaware of how "controversial" it is. (I'm betting on the former, to be honest.)
First of all, I just want to say how fucking retarded it is that people think this is some kind of Trayvon Martin tribute in the first place. For one thing, not a single word was written by GD to even put some context to this picture. Instead, he chose to caption this with "X." Since X doesn't mean shit unless you put some wacky spin on it courtesy of confirmation bias, it's simply a picture of him with his face painted black with a T-shirt over his head like some goon. AND YES, THAT IS A T-SHIRT OVER HIS HEAD, NOT A FUCKING HOODIE LIKE
The fucking clothing tag is hanging out over his forehead, and you can clearly see that it's the cut of a T-shirt. So why do people jump to the conclusion that it's a grey hoodie instead of a shitty faded black T-shirt pulled over his head? Confirmation bias. Here's what the "logical" progression of events in the fangirls' minds looked like to get to this point:
- GD is Korean.
- Koreans are notoriously ignorant of the significance of blackface.
- GD has his face painted black. GD is "obviously" doing blackface.
- What black figure is commonly depicted in a similar manner? Trayvon Martin.
- Celebrities have taken to social media to do Trayvon Martin tributes.
- GD is a celebrity who has posted this picture on a social media service.
- GD is "obviously" doing a Trayvon Martin tribute..
Secondly, anyone who thinks this is some kind of facial pack is stupid as well. THIS is a facial pack of black substance (charcoal in this case)
Anyone who's ever put on a facial pack/mask before knows all too well that you're not supposed to apply that shit anywhere near your eyes or lips, let alone directly on the eyelids like GD did in his picture. An idol like GD would be especially aware of this fact, since it's likely that he's gone through hundreds of masks like these to maintain his skin/face/good looks. Besides, the application of whatever it is is uneven. You can even see parts of his skin underneath. No one's dumb enough to misapply a facial mask so thinly like that, especially not an experienced individual like GD.
Thirdly, YG has FINALLY come out with an official statement on the matter so all of the fangirls' bullshit reasoning/justifications don't count for shit anymore.
In response to the controversy brewing, YG Entertainment reached out to SPIN to clarify the matter at hand, stating that this was all just a big misunderstanding.
"GD was simply wearing different face paint colors and this is a huge misunderstanding. The face paint is only a color variation for his album cover which includes black, white, and red. It is in no way meant to be a political or racial statement... It's being derived by a simple photo shoot where GD was using different face paint colors for his upcoming album," the reps said.
While many of these official PR statements are full of obvious bullshit, this one is fairly plausible. Why? The shit on his face clearly looks like some kind of water-based paint, GD is supposed to come out with a new album in August, and he's known for doing weird shit like this. It all matches up, and it doesn't require a ton of happenstance and retarded jumps in logic to make sense.
So why are people still so butthurt? It all boils down to "HURR DURR BLACK FACE PAINT = BLACKFACE." Especially if the person in the paint is Asian, cause fuck all those gooks/chinks/nips for not knowing about the intricacies of American racial history in the early 1900s right? (We'll ignore the blatant Americentrism inherent in such a judgment in order to stay on-topic.) The same bit of confirmation bias is used here as well:
- An individual in black face paint is not black.
- Blackface is a parody of black people created by the application of black face paint to non-black individuals.
- The individual in black face paint is doing blackface.
The hypocrisy of generalizing and making such a broad-stroked assumption/judgment like the very same bigots these people are attempting to call out aside (we're going to be doing a lot of ignoring for the sake of this presentation), let's look at how stupid that particular statement is.
This is a Japanese oni mask. This is black. This is a mask. This goes on the face. OBVIOUSLY BLACKFACE, FUCK THE JAPANESE RIGHT? "But Zaku," you say. "This is a mask, not face paint, it doesn't count!" For the sake of the argument, I'll ignore your cherry picking fallacy and continue.
This is an example of traditional face paint for Chinese opera. There is black paint. This is applied to the face. This is Asian in origin. OBVIOUSLY BLACKFACE, FUCK THE CHINESE RIGHT? "But Zaku," you say. "There's too many colors, it's not blackface." Okay, sure. Let's ignore your cherry picking fallacy again.
This is the military. They routinely paint their faces black for field operations requiring stealth and other tactical advantages such paint provides. These particular soldiers happen to be white, the "originators" of blackface in the first place. OBVIOUSLY BLACKFACE, FUCK THE MILITARY RIGHT?
If you're going to continue to jump to the conclusion that "black face paint = blackface," especially in the face of all these fairly normal examples to the contrary, then you're hopeless and guilty of the same blind prejudice you get so butthurt about in your little e-activism. What's even more damning is how all of these examples have reasonable context to them, context that appears to justify having black paint on your face. Ignoring how stupid it is that we even need to HAVE context for applying black shit to your face these days, what exactly is keeping fangirls from accepting the YG explanation for GD's black face paint? They're simply choosing to ignore truths that don't fit in with their view of the world. And even without YG's press release, why was it necessary in the first place to find an appropriate context in which to evaluate GD's original picture? After all, all he wrote was "X" on the post.
Making IRRATIONAL conclusions about someone YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW PERSONALLY, REGARDLESS OF CONTEXT? Hm, smells like bigotry, racism, and prejudice to me.
That's what pisses me off about this whole situation. Breathtakingly retarded application of confirmation bias aside, the hypocrisy exhibited here makes my blood boil. How are you going to get up on your white horse and rant about how racist GD is for doing blackface when you're using the same "logical" conclusions and reasoning that racist people use themselves? The worst part is when people try to point this out, fangirls simply brush it off saying, "Don't even try to protect oppa, anyone trying is a stupid oppadickrider." Again, these people are choosing to ignore the facts that don't fit in their worldview or desired interpretation of events.
Am I defending blackface? No. Am I defending GD? In a way, yes. He did nothing wrong, and people are trying to find a racist subtext where there is none. Remember, blackface is a racist stereotyped caricature of black people and not just PAINTING YOUR FACE BLACK.
And since this piece was too serious with little to no comedic value, have some gorgeous eyecandy to reward yourself for making it this far.
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