Stray Kids’ Bang Chan Issues Personal Apology For Imitating The Jim Crow Pose From “This Is America” In Resurfaced Video
On August 3, Stray Kids‘ Bang Chan posted a heartfelt apology on Bubble after an old video of him dancing to Childish Gambino‘s “This Is America” resurfaced on social media. While simply dancing along wouldn’t normally be considered offensive, Bang Chan imitating the Jim Crow pose at the end is what fans said was the problem.
In order to better understand the similarities, here are the original images:
And here is the video of Bang Chan:
So this is 1/2 of the video that resurfaced, the problem was the ending pose that he did pic.twitter.com/2f8cqGLloI
— may (@irl_yoongi) August 3, 2021
For those who don’t know, Jim Crow is a symbol for “the racial caste system which operated primarily, but not exclusively in southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid-1960s” which “represented the legitimization of anti-black racism.” This is why Stays were disappointed in Bang Chan’s actions and wanted him to learn from his past mistakes.
Yes!! Racism can be done out of ignorance, and in his case, this is ignorance. No one is born knowing everything, we learn with our mistakes. Which is why we’re trying to tell him and other fans what he did wrong so he can learn and not repeat these mistakes.
— 「endymion」¹²⁷ (@H0BIFY) August 3, 2021
The best thing I can do as a stay is to NOT JUSTIFY chan’s action in that video, since this is a very delicate matter for bstay and much less try to silence them, because it would be invalidating their feelings, the best we can do is to send him his mistake
— ❁┊ᴷᶦʸᵒ♡̷ (@kiyoxyi) August 3, 2021
Only a few hours after the original video went viral on Twitter, Bang Chan took to Bubble and typed out a long, heartfelt apology:
STAY~ As a member of Stray Kids, ‘Stray Kids Everywhere All Around The World’ is a very precious slogan. Even if my intentions meant no harm, it doesn’t matter at all because there are people out there who were very hurt by my decisions. I should have thought it out more thoroughly and clearly before initiating those actions. Once again I am very sorry and would like to ask for forgiveness to those who have been offended. We, Stray Kids, do not support racism in any form and matter. As you all know I’m still lacking a lot in many aspects… But with the unconditional love and support that I receive from STAYs, I can keep chasing my dreams to become a great artist, and overall, become a better human being. STAY, thank you so much for everything that you’ve done for me.
– Bang Chan
While it’s up to each affected Stay individually whether or not they choose to accept the apology, many have shared how they are grateful for his fast reply. They believe Bang Chan posted to the messaging app as quickly as possible in order to prevent JYP Entertainment from making edits to his true feelings and further delaying his response.
People should know that Chan has more direct control using bubble. The company might not have given him the permission to do it on other social platforms.
— 🍀🐺EJ – 이제이스테이🐺🍀 (@ySTayskz) August 3, 2021
You know, Bang Chan is not the kind of person haters are trying to paint him to be. He has been held accountable and he apologized multiple times. It’s just heartbreaking to see someone so genuine, kind, and honest to be targeted by hate by toxic people who barely even know him.
— 🍀🐺EJ – 이제이스테이🐺🍀 (@ySTayskz) August 3, 2021
also the fact that bang chan preferred to write that by himself on a direct messaging platform instead of waiting and redacting something with the staff, because that would take hours and hours (as it would need to be revised and go through different approvals before posting)
— 양🍀 (@byunskiz) August 3, 2021
What do you think about the situation?
