During a visit to cheer for the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, Rosé (BLACKPINK) had to hear some racist slurs.
On November 10, the NBA continued with 13 matches. One of them that received special attention from the Kpop fan community was the match between the New York Knicks and the Milwaukee Bucks. The reason is that Rosé of the group BLACKPINK was one of the guests of the Madison Square Garden home team.
Appearing with a lovely outfit on the courtside seats, the “Australian muse” quickly captured the spotlight despite dressing quite simply. Being a singer with many fans around the world, Rosé is known to have a special love for basketball and especially the NBA tournament.
In this match, she cheered for the New York Knicks, together with Derrick Rose, a player of the Madison Square Garden team who has the same name as her. To thank her for accepting the invitation to appear at Madison Square Garden, the team’s Board of Directors gave the 1997-born female idol a Derrick Rose shirt.
According to what Rosé shared on her Instagram, it seems like she had enjoyed the NBA game. However, in such a large city like New York and especially at a game in which Madison Square Garden was the home team, it was understandable when not many people recognized Rosé.
Most audiences at the exit of MSG stadium were really curious about why so many people were so excited to see Rosé. In a video clip recorded and uploaded by the Tiktok account @ctrlchaennie, a man shouted loudly, “Who’s that? Who is she? Ling Ling?”
In the U.S, “Ling Ling” is a kind of racial slur to discriminate against Asian people. This word originated from non-Asians trying to imitate the words that sound like the Chinese language.
After more than 2 days, this video has received more than 300,000 views and over 1,000 comments. The majority of the comments are from BLINKs (BLACKPINK’s fans) who expressed concern for Rosé. Many fans and netizens also voiced their criticism against racism in the US, especially discrimination against Asians.
In a multiracial country like the US, discrimination against people of color, particularly Asians, is becoming more serious. Since the pandemic began, many heartbreaking incidents have happened as consequences of this stigma.
In the comments, some people said it was possible that the man in the video misheard BLACKPINK as “Bling – bling. This incident is currently gaining much attention from Kpop fans in general and BLINKs in particular. Currently, there has not been any response from related parties to this issue.
