Han, a member of the K-pop group Stray Kids, became involved in a social media controversy after releasing a song with racist content.
On social networks, the singer spoke publicly on the subject; claiming to have written the lyrics before joining the group when he was only 13 years old and very immature.
The original song was posted by Han on his personal YouTube channel in 2013; before debuting with Stray Kids.
It was removed from the platform after a while. But some netizens leaked it and shared excerpts on Twitter in which the singer says:
“Are you a kkamdoongie foreign laborer, you motherfucking pig bird.”
jisung from skz said the n word + body shaming and xenophobia in a song he made when he was 13, ppl are defending him saying he was immature and trying to clear the tags with park jisung from nct so people are getting confused pic.twitter.com/at30Don4u8
— naomi (@yaehugs) February 2, 2021
According to the Allkpop news page, the term “kkamdoongie” is pejorative. It is used to insult people who have darker skin.
Furthermore, the post also claims that netizens understood that Han was referring to people from Southeast Asia. Who normally go to South Korea in search of work.
The controversy generated a lot of repercussion and reached the artist, who spoke publicly through the official Stray Kids Instagram.
The artist apologized for the song, claiming to have been very immature in writing the lyrics.
Hi, I’m Han from Stray Kids. First of all, the lyrics that I wrote around 2013, when I was 13 years old, became controversial and are causing great concern to fans and many others. It’s my fault and I have no right to explain it. I apologize. I wrote ignorant lyrics during my immature days because I wanted to sound cool like the famous rapper scene. I apologize for hurting a lot of people for the lyrics that I wrote without thinking.
Through this incident, I read the opinions left by many people, I looked back at my past lyrics and thought a lot about them. I chose to be a singer to express myself through music and empathize with more people, but I just feel ashamed of myself for having written these lyrics in the past. I know this is not an act that can be forgiven just because I was young, so I will reflect on my actions. I will always appreciate the importance of love and support from so many fans in South Korea, as well as abroad, and I will be a responsible artist. Once again; I sincerely apologize to all who have been harmed by my past actions. I’m sorry.
