A caricature of BTS has caused outrage in the Army community because it is heavily racist.
On March 17, a controversy regarding btsbroke out on social networks. Topps, a company specializing in the design and manufacture of cards in the US, publishes cards with cartoons about Grammy called Garbage Pail Kids – The Shammy. However, if the drawings of Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Bruno Mars, Harry Styles … are humorous and gentle, the drawing of BTS is drawn by author Chris Meek in a different way.
In the photo, the author draws BTS as 7 yellow men with a bruised face under the Grammy trumpet, implying the failure of BTS at the biggest music awards ceremony in the United States held on March 14. The drawing even has a deeper implication when describing BTS as a game of “Whac-a-Mole”. The violent image showed BTS members with bruises, bandages, even broken teeth and stitched with tears and fearful expressions.
The BTS fan community is extremely outraged at Topps’ caricature of BTS. They call this an act of racism and extreme discrimination against Asians. In the context of many recent shootings in the US, in which some Asians were killed, the caricature of BTS at the Grammy Awards was even more criticized on Twitter.
Keywords such as #RacismIsNotComedy, #AsiansAreHuman … are on top of global Twitter trending with hundreds of thousands of tweets opposing the drawing, claiming to be offensive, showing the author’s emotionless attitude towards BTS. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, this painting has advocated racism and violence against Asians – a very painful situation in the West.
Over the past few days, numerous Asian American celebrities (including 2NE1‘s CL) have vowed to raise awareness of the situation and help gather funds to help protect the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.
Billboard was also slammed promoting the product via an affiliate link. Billboard has since deleted references to BTS in its article but has not taken the post itself down or removed links to the product.
