CANCEL KOREA, REALLY?

 

I will say this early on, I will not give up on K-Drama, K-Pop, K-Variety just because of this shit.

It all probably started when a Filipino tiktoker, Bella Poarch, who is not even living here, posted on tiktok, it’s not clear whether she has that tattoo or her father, a tattoo of the rising sun flag of Japan. To those who not know, that flag was the flag of the Imperial Japan. The time when Japan conquered a fourth of China, the whole of Korea, and almost the entire South East Asia, along with it, our own country the Philippines. With that imperialism, atrocities follow. And with all the countries that fall under their rule, Korea, or then Joseon, suffer the most of it. Girls were kidnapped, and force to have sex with the troops, in brothels. Man were force to served in the Japanese army, as frontline troops, and the others are emigrated also to do force labor. They are treated as second class citizens in their own land. So you would imagine, how deep is the hatred between South Korea and Japan. I dont know if South Korea, and also the North, had not fully forgiven, or not really forgiven Japan for it.

So seeing the rising sun flag, is offensive for Koreans. Had Bella Poarch just post it, their would not have been any problem. But she tagged the word Korea, along with the words I Love Korea, with the tattoo of the rising sun. If you’re a Korean, how would you feel seeing that? Knowing all the history behind the flag. I will feel insulted if I am one.

But the excuse was, she doesn’t know anything about the history of it, and apologized. And the series of insults and counter insults began. And Cancel Korea was born. Asking to boycott K-dramas, and kpop idols. As I have said early on, I wont give it up for this shit.

Its not that I am defending racism. Racism is evil, not just bad. But we Filipinos, are also guilty of it. In fact all nations, are guilty of it. And our racism are much worse. Just look, why many from Luzon, hates Duterte even if they have not known him personally. Some of have even edited the picture of Duterte, paying respects to the fallen of Jolo blast, making him look like eating dog food. Why is that? Because of the mere fact, that Duterte is from Mindanao, a Bisaya, and they that hate him, are Tagalogs.

So before we called Cancel Korea, we must cancel racism first, in our own ranks. We cant counter hate, with hate. It will just produce more hate. And Yoda said, hate leads to suffering. If they are down at that level, we should up the level, not go down with them. We should be the better person. If they are generalizing, we should not. Share love instead of hate.