Over the years, BTS has dealt with discrimination and hate, even from fellow public figures and celebrities. Here are 9 of the people who came under fire for disrespecting the group.
1. Joe Budden
This American media personality and former rapper faced backlash after he claimed to hate BTS for no reason in particular.
While discussing the 2022 GRAMMY Awards on The Joe Budden Podcast, Budden said, “I hate them BTS n***as.” His reason? “I don’t want to see it.” Budden also referred to BTS as a group from China rather than South Korea.
I don’t want to hear that s**t. I don’t want to see them dance moves. I don’t want to see you come down from the sky in a little umbrella. I don’t want to see your four f***ing codies come from the audience and then link up like Voltron to do all of the 98 Degrees moves. I don’t want to see none of that s**t. I don’t want to see it. I know they big, I know it’s China, I don’t want to see it.
— Joe Budden
Unsurprisingly, Budden’s heated remarks landed him in boiling hot water with BTS’s fan ARMY.
joe budden pulling shit about bts out his ass, but he sure knew every little detail of their grammy performance.
that’s a lot of attention paid to someone you supposedly “hate” for no goddamn reason.
jealousy is a disease and joe budden is one step away from the grave— sammelsurium (@sammelsurium7) April 6, 2022
Rather than apologizing, Budden doubled down and dismissed ARMY’s ire.
Why? They gonna dance me to oblivion? Throw a deck of cards my way aggressively? Lol 😭😭 https://t.co/YERvn8xRzq
— Joe Budden (@JoeBudden) April 6, 2022
2 & 3. Liam Payne and Logan Paul
Liam Payne, a former member of the boyband One Direction, came under fire for allegedly downplaying BTS’s success.
After guesting on Episode 328 of YouTuber Logan Paul‘s IMPAULSIVE podcast, he received criticism from listeners for his remarks about other artists. This included BTS and his own former bandmate, Zayn Malik.
he’s about to get dragged by zayn’s fans pic.twitter.com/sr7BGB9Wxw
— georgia (@worldclasslewis) May 31, 2022
Furthermore, Logan Paul claimed that One Direction was the “biggest boy band of all time,” downplaying the achievements of major acts like BTS.
You had such as fast and global come up. So, you’re a part of One Direction, probably the biggest boy band of all time and has yet to be replicated…
— Logan Paul
Payne stated that K-Pop groups have “kind of reignited” the popularity of boybands and girlbands but mentioned none by name.
Yeah, I think some of the K-Pop bands have kind of reignited the thing. I mean, obviously, we have 5 Seconds of Summer as well. That did pretty well.
— Liam Payne
4. Tucker Carlson
BTS met with President Joe Biden at The White House to discuss racial discrimination, anti-Asian hate crimes, and more. While the overwhelming majority of reactions to BTS’s visit were positive, not everyone was a fan.
American TV host Tucker Carlson came under fire for allegedly disrespecting BTS on his show, Tucker Carlson Tonight.
Things have gotten very bad for Joe Biden, both public-facing and internally. What are they doing about it? Well, they broke glass in case of emergency and invited a Korean pop group to speak at the White House today…
Yeah, so we got a Korean pop group to discuss anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States. Okay. Good job, guys.
— Tucker Carlson
As a result, ARMY called out Tucker Carlson for his remarks and explained the importance of BTS’s involvement.
5. Andy Biggs
Tucker Carlson isn’t the only public figure accused of shading BTS’s White House visit. Following The White House press briefing, American politician Andy Biggs tweeted an opinion that fans have called out for being shady.
Wonder if they have any ideas on how to secure our border, lower inflation, lower gas prices, and get baby formula back on our shelves. pic.twitter.com/EBZnyySWf2
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) May 31, 2022
As fans pointed out, BTS didn’t fly across the world to do his job for him.
He really thought he ate lol
— Kyle 🐝 (@kyletheewriter) May 31, 2022
6. The hosts of Mi Barrio
Chilean comedy TV show Mi Barrio found itself in hot water for making racist and xenophobic jokes about BTS. During a skit, BTS’s members were compared to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Additionally, the actors playing BTS mocked the Korean language by imitating it with gibberish.
[THREAD] Last night, Chilean comedy TV show #MiBarrio (open TV channel available to the whole country) presented a parody performance of BTS, where all the jokes were based on racism and xenophobia, including mockery of their language, (cont.)
video cr; isidoradae pic.twitter.com/tBK8CYbbKs
— BTS Chile ⁷ (@BTS_Chile) April 11, 2021
Host: Introduce yourself!
Person 1: Kim Jong-Un(o)*
Person 2: Kim Jong-Two
Person 3: Kim Jong-Three
Person 4: Kim Jong-Four
Person 5: Juan Carlos!
*The name of North Korea’s dictator + number one (uno)
— translation credits to @BTS_Chile on Twitter
Fans used the hashtag #ElRacismoNoEsComedia to bring attention to the situation, calling for an apology on BTS’s behalf.
This is not how I wanted to spend my Sunday, but here we are. Racism isn’t funny. Repeating the name of a dictator isn’t clever. Making fun of a language you don’t understand isn’t cute. Pretending to be twee isn’t it. It’s 2021. Knock it off, #MIBarrio. #ElRacismoNoEsComedia https://t.co/iz2JEKfAmE
— Jae-Ha Kim 김재하 (@GoAwayWithJae) April 11, 2021
In reply, Mi Barrio posted this message on their Instagram account.
Thank you everyone for the good vibes! We’ll continue improving, learning, listening, and we’ll remain firm in our intention: to bring fun to families. We collect all positive comments and also the critics, because that’s what we’re for: contribute a little with humor and fun.
— translation credits to @BTS_Chile on Twitter
7. Mehrad Hidden
This Iranian rapper was accused of stealing BTS’s shield logo and insulting the group with racist and homophobic jokes.
Hidden replied to the plagiarism accusations with these Instagram stories.
who are these f****ts?
— Hidden’s story caption
After receiving an intense wave of backlash from ARMY, Hidden deleted his original Instagram post.
8. Matthias Matuschik
German radio host Matthias Matuschik from radio station BAYERN 3 compared BTS to COVID-19 while on air.
[ENG TRANSLATION]
tw // racism
a german radio host was talking immensely badly about BTS, comparing them to COVID and mentioning blasphemy and north korea, this can’t be tolerated!
pls email bighit about this as well!
(video by @fairiesvmns)#RassismusBeiBayern3#Bayern3Racist pic.twitter.com/MjZ2kXLyiu— BTS UPDATES GERMANY ⁷ 🇩🇪 (REST) (@BTS_UPDATES_GER) February 25, 2021
Both ARMY and the action group against anti-Asian discrimination in Germany tweeted about the situation, to which Matthias snarkily replied.
9. Jimmy Kimmel
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has come under fire more than once for making BTS the butt of his jokes. Just a week after comparing “BTS fever” to COVID-19, Jimmy Kimmel allegedly shaded BTS during his opening monologue about the Omnicron variant.
You know, these variants, all the different variants, remind me of the boy bands in the late 90s and the early 2000s. You know, you had the big ones, like Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, and then that mutated into O-Town and 98 Degrees. And we had the Jonas Brothers popped up, Big Time Rush. They kept splitting off in different directions, eventually One Direction. And they took pieces, and it popped up all over the world, until eventually we get to one that’s so contagious it destroys all life on earth.
— Jimmy Kimmel
On Twitter, fans accused Kimmel of racism and xenophobia, many slamming his “comedy.”
I don’t understand how the ‘joke’ was deemed appropriate by multiple people when Jimmy Kimmel was clearly drawing parallels between a group of Korean men to a virus that has killed millions of ppl all over the world.#JimmyKimmelRacist
— E⁷ (@JJKBTS14) January 28, 2022
Safe to assume @jimmykimmel is feeling pretty smug now he managed to compare 875 to a “virus mutation so contagious it destroys all life on earth” without actually mentioning them, and by mentioning a selection of western boy bands he probably feels clever. You don’tget it. (+)
— Cypher⁷ / Shesawseesaw (@cypherluscious) January 28, 2022
BTS
Share This Post
