kpop and aave/cultural appropriation
I’ve seen a lot of people talking about K-pop idols using AAVE and about cultural appropriation, so I wanted to share my opinion. Please don’t flame me.
First of all, I don’t think every situation is the same. You can’t really compare what Kiss Of Life did to groups like Aespa using some AAVE in WDA or CORTIS being criticized for AAVE and Martin’s blaccent. What Kiss Of Life did was much more blatant and crossed a completely different line.
I also don’t think every idol uses AAVE with racist intentions. I think a lot of them are trying to come across as cool, funny, relatable, or trendy. Personally, I also think some idols don’t want to come across as “too Asian”, instead of just acting naturally, they sometimes put on a persona they think international fans will find cooler or more relatable, I mean that’s the impression I get.
Before writing this, I looked up examples of AAVE because I wanted to be more informed. I found out that words like “bruh” and “lowkey” originated from AAVE. And so many teenagers use words like that without even knowing where they came from. But there are also expressions and speech patterns that are much more closely tied to black culture, and I think those are different. For example things like “I be ___” or “get yo *ss in here” or putting on a blaccent isn’t the same as casually saying “bruh”, like that’s clearly black people speech.
That’s why, when it comes to CORTIS, Their use of AAVE isn’t in a racist way, more like they don’t know, except when they’ve acc use the aave that’s obviously black people speech like that on interview where martin said “who gon leave” or smth. 🤦🏽♀️
Still, I don’t think Martin’s blaccent is excusable. To me, it feels like he’s putting on a persona because he thinks it sounds cool. I don’t necessarily think he’s doing it out of hatred or racism, but I still think it’s inappropriate because he clearly knows he’s changing the way he speaks.
The Christmas controversy also came to mind. Personally, it felt more like they were trying to act “hard” or imitate a certain “from the hood” image. Again, this is where I think the “trying not to seem too Asian” idea comes in. It feels like they’re trying to fit an image of what they think is cool (that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a bad idea, personally it honestly just gave me massive second hand embarrassment seeing teenagers try to act like they’re from a gang or tough lmao).
My first thought wasn’t that they were specifically trying to imitate black gangs. To me, it just looked like they were copying a stereotypical “gangster” image in general (if anything, it’s a hispanic gang what comes to mind, because that’s what i’m used to). That said, I completely understand why many fans interpreted it differently, especially given the history of black culture being stereotyped and appropriated.
**But i saw fans saying there were some other kids that did that tiktok doing to same thing and they were just recreating it, so idk.
Also, I think it’s important to separate intent from impact. I don’t believe every idol who uses AAVE is trying to be racist. I think a lot of them are copying internet culture because they think it makes them seem cooler. But that doesn’t mean the impact is harmless. If you’re borrowing language, speech patterns, or cultural elements from a community that has faced discrimination for those same things, it’s understandable why people wouldn’t like it.
I don’t have anything against Cortis, I’m trying that it doesn’t look like that but it’s just what is kinda recent.
*English isn’t my first language so i may have made some mistakes while writing this i’m sorry i hope it still understandable.