O-Ring

I still remember your full name... Shall it share it with Kim So Hyun-fans? Haha, just joking. What happened to both of them actually, I have not seen them active anymore?

There are different ways to defend a person... Giving them your name and telling them to harass you instead of another person, is ridiculous... You are not Jesus Christ. You are not send by God to carry someone else's burden...

That whole "Pranksalot"-thing was a low for this comment section, but you went pretty low yourself by providing your surname... I was not sure whether it was heroice or a bit overdramatic...

How would you call Rastas then? A "movement" perhaps, but definitely not an "ethnicity".

Quite honestly, I do not really mind whether people watch it or not. I rather have them not watch it... I do not want some white person tell us that we are living our lives wrongly for liking BR.

My problem lies in the fact that I do not like to be "dominated" (for a lack of a better word) by the West. I believe that our Confucian society is better in every aspect than your Judo-Christian one. I have lived in both and I do not think that your values are more superior than mine. For example, if I want to fucking eat my squid alive, I will just do it. I do not want to hear this bullshit that it is animal cruelty or some Western bullshit. You only see this attitude with Western people... For example, I have never seen an Indian giving me shit for eating beef (FYI, a cow is considered to be a holy animal over there).

I do not have problems with the fact that people find the character racist. They have a point. I have a problem with the fact that they think that SBS, JCW, KYJ or anyone in Asia has the duty to perform research on Rasta culture so that it complies with the Western values... Fuck, this is Asia... It is our continent... If you do not like it, you can take a hike. Kdrama are not produced for the USA, they are primarily produced for Koreans. We are open for constructive communication, but not for Western propaganda. Hope you understand my sentiment ;-)

Even though, I must say that we are clearly different-minded, I do think that our conversation is relatively amiable. We can still talk with each other... But I have seen different cases.

I am not criticizing Koreans. I think they are the only with the right to complain. Having said that, I did not see a lot of Koreans complaining about the Rasta character.

Amruta, question... Are you gonna be so brave again by giving your surname and asking them to harass you instead? Care to provide it again? Haha... Ridiculous...

I lump the Rastafari with Dal Shik, not with BLM. You do that by making the issues of Dal Shik centered around "black identity". In my opinion, Rastas are not black. Rastas are not an ethnicity, but a belief. Everyone can be part of a belief... But many seem to think that DS ridiculed black people (the ethnicity), whilst in reality he ridiculed Rastas (the belief).

Why did the Rastas change their beliefs? Because they started to accept white people as part of their brotherhood, so they felt that their beliefs are no more relevant. If they are opening to different ethnicities, perhaps we should do too? But you still did not answer why Dal Shik is not allowed to be a Rasta with dreads... Because he is mocking Rastas? But mockery is not automatically racism or discrimination, right?

"Like I said you can't simply say "I would do this or that" when you don't live their lives or their circumstances."

It is exactly this sentence you wrote that makes me believe that you cannot hold the watcher or the makers of Backstreet Rookie accountable. Because they didn't "live the life you did". So how can you hold people accountable then? By opening up the dialogue and explain to people what is problematic with the characters... But that is something (not you per say) a lot of critics refuse to do. If people then do not listen, you have a point that they are "ignorant".

No, you have the opinion that this DS-character in this show is racist. Fine, I am willing to accept it, but explain to me why. Is it because of the dreadlocks or is it because of the flies? We still do not know why exactly we are hating on this character. A few weeks ago I explained the abhorrent things the Rastafari believe in and therefore I found that ridiculing the OG Rastas not to be a bad thing. Their old beliefs are as follows:

1. Haile Selassie I is the Living God
2. The Black person is the reincarnation of ancient Israel, who, at the hand of the White person, has been in exile in Jamaica
3. The White person is inferior to the Black person
4. Jamaica is hell; Ethiopia is heaven
5. The Invincible Emperor of Ethiopia is now arranging for expatriated persons of African origin to return to Ethiopia
6. In the near future Blacks shall rule the world

They changed their old beliefs to a more peaceful ideology, because there were so many non-Blacks also becoming Rasta. So they felt that they could not really follow these principles anymore as they were dissing their new brothers. But if Rastas can accept White people, why is this Dal Shik-character racist? If we do not allow Dal Shik, does that mean that we agree with the original hateful principles of the Rastas? Yikes...

Hey Amruta... You again! Whenever the comment section blows up, you are always there to be the conscience of MDL. Welcome back, we missed you

Well, if you have been explaining it already your whole life, why suddenly stop because you are tired? Isn't this against the spirit of the BLM-movement? Besides, if you have explained it your whole life, you probably have a summary somewhere? Or is it because you do not know how to explain it, because you never gave it a thought?

But those were marches against a specific topic. The BLM and the Hong Kong protests are just a hail mary of protest that does not ask for a solution to a concrete problem, but to abstract problems. In Hong Kong's case, less influence of China and in BLM equal treatment of black people. But these are so vaguely formulated that we do not know what problems we need to tackle first. What entails "equal treatment"? Same salary as white people, no colonial statues, no more police brutality, more awareness etc. etc.? To every protester Black Lives Matters means something different. Protests without a single agenda never works. We have seen it with Occupy Wall Street, Global Warming Protests and most likely also with BLM.

Don't you think it is interesting that people are willing to put in effort to lecture people on viewership ratings, but not on cultural appropriation and racism? I get full pages on Netflix and viewership ratings, but whenever people have a different opinion on dreadlocks, no one takes the time to educate the different minded. They think that saying "You are ignorant" suffices. These type of comments are counterproductive...

Yes, you are screaming. This comment is a good example: "Here comes an ignorant person who doesn't care to unpack the glaring problems in this drama.
Also, that statement reminds me of someone..."

Did you explain to Matthew Olls why he is ignorant? - No... You did not provide him with any argument on what he did or said wrong. It is just screaming nonconstructive shit in the hope it sticks.

Protests are good, but not in the way Hong Kong or BLM did... with the very aggressive stance. A lot of people in Hong Kong changed sides after the protesters became more aggressive. Thanks to their stance, China even pushed through a very controversial bill. BLM started with riots and then ended with pulling down whole statues, which agitated only the backwards white people and made their clown of a President more popular. Were the protests less aggressive and more constructive, then it would solve more. Pulling down a few statues does not solve jackshit. It only gives a small rush of equality, but it will last at most one day. Most of the people walking past those statues do not even know who the statue is. Anyway, I digress.

Real change is brought forwards with concrete bills against racism, compiling stories on how black people are discriminated because of their skin color and sharing it on social media or with mainstream media so people learn to understand etc. Peaceful demonstrations such as Martin Luther King or Gandhi... Those work... Not riots such as those in LA in 1992.

I think you misunderstood my comment about Korea and the West. What I try to say, is that Korea could not care less about the opinions of a few Western folks streaming a kdrama most likely via illegal means.

Western people always think that they are the most revered, but in truth the whole East, Africa and even Latin-America is waiting for the day that they can bring down the US and Europe... Especially after the mess you have created in all those continents. The West is just less popular than you think and your opinion does not matter as much as you think they do - especially if you forcefully push it on the Koreans or other different minded people. Instead, start a dialogue and see whether the opposition is open to listen to your views...

I doubt that the BLM will bring change to our society. The suppression of black people is not something of today, but centuries. It is painful, but the truth... Look at Hong Kong and their protests... Did it change China? No, it did not... In fact, Hong Kong is worse off than prior to the protests...

You do not bring change by screaming or waiving away people with a different opinion. You do that by having a dialogue, by educating the opposite party on why your view is right...

Compare this comment section with for example the one of IONTBO. For example, I personally hold the belief that that show is doing below average, because 4-5% viewership rating is piss poor even for TVN-standards. But whenever I mention that, I will get at least three people explaining to me why my view is wrong. Some even provide sources. Remember, this is only viewership ratings...

Now we have a serious topic here in the form of racism and people are only screaming, have no arguments and do not provide sources... Whenever you have a different opinion, they call you ignorant. Because they think this will make them sound more educated, but they do not understand that they are just a group of fake woke people with a herd mentality. They are the type that cannot explain why global warming exist and think that carbon dioxide harms everything including trees (FYI, trees need carbon dioxide to live), but they also think that they understand Korea/Asia because they watched a few kdramas.

I applaud people for speaking up against racism, social injustice or what not. But people need to understand that is really just a fad. They think that their screaming can change anything. For example, look at the BLM-movement... A few weeks ago it was all trending and people really thought that they could make a difference. A few weeks later, we all have forgotten about it and we live our lives as usual.

Rather than posting these stupid comments as "Please educate yourself on cultural appropriation" or "Go on Google to find out why dreadlocks are racist", it would be much more useful when people just stop being so cryptic and just post their reasoning or their beliefs. For example, post comments such as "Dreadlocks are a remnant of White oppression, because reason A, B and C".

These social justice warriors think that the burden is with the viewers of Backstreet Rookie to find out why something is racist... How can people recognize racism, when they do not think it is racism? In my opinion, it is the burden of the social justice warriors to make people aware why it is racist... People like "dreamer" just scream, but do not bring anything constructive to the debate. They are like the math teacher asking a pupil to solve the equation, but the pupil does not know how... Does it really make sense to continue pushing the pupil to give an answer or would it make more sense of the teacher to walk through the equation with the pupil? That is what I meant with the world does not only center around the West. Please go educate people on your dark slavery past, but do not expect Koreans or JCW to know your history inside out from the get go...

They think Korea is the 51st state of America or something. They believe that JCW, KYJ or SBS have the same values as they do and will understand their reasoning...

Although I must admit that there are some questionable characters in BR, I really do not understand where the entitlement of people comes from to put a Korean drama against a Western social justice barometer. People really feel that JCW, KYJ, iQiyi, SBS or kdrama in general are there to please the Western crowd. What an old-fashioned, imperialistic way of thinking... Not everything centers around the West... Where do they get this idea from that their view will be heard or cared for by JCW, KYJ, iQiyi, SBS or Korea in general?

I think they tried to copy the "Signal" effect, but with Signal the 4:3 effect did not bother me so much, but here they are so much skinnier...