Lovely

Yeah, Black people have decided that it's appropriation.

It's very easy to find the answer to why it's appropriation. Dreads have always been part of African culture but on Black people they are considered as nasty, unprofessional and whatever. Hairstyles in most of African cultures have significant meanings for their culture, wealth and status, for African-Americans braids for example were used to free themselves from the slave masters.
I don't understand how your analogy refers to my comment. Genetics is a whole other thing, you can look like whatever and be still 100% your ethnicity. However, that doesn't take away from the problem of how people what look 100% their race are portrayed by the others.
The problem lies especially in the fact that the character is not supposed to be Black, than why does he look like that? It's not only his skin color, because of course Koreans can be dark, there are Black Koreans too. The problem lies with the combination of all the things they decided to dress up the character.
The drama made it clear that the character is 100% Korean, that could mean he can still be Black, yes, but by empathizing that he is indeed 100% they tell the viewers 100% means he is 100% not black, because in their ideology you can't possibly be both.

I don't even expect anybody to not watch this or to not enjoy this, I'm just expecting everybody to acknowledge the issue and to not tell Black people they are sensitive for criticizing a problem they are forced to suffer from for 400 years.

The problem is that Black people have been ridiculed for their natural hair and their hairstyles for 400 years. Until this day Black people get fired for just wearing and styling their hair. It is appropriation because non-black people can just chose to wear these styles (dreads, box braids, cornrows, etc.) and still don't face the same discrimination that Black people have for the say. If say a White guy wears dreads it's hippie culture, if a Black guy wears it then suddenly he is a thug, has bad hygiene and/or is dangerous.
Those hairstyles have been always been part of African culture, it's their heritage, an accessory to represent cultures, wealth and status. Instead of appreciating those on Black people, we are kept being told our hair and hairstyles are ugly, being told that our hair is difficult to wash therefore we're dirty and we stink.
And while Black people still suffer for the fashion and self-expression they invented for themselves, non-black people started to suddenly adapt/steal those styles because suddenly they liked it - on themselves, but not on Black people.
Black people don't get any credit for it, people just think it's natural for anybody to do what they want, and ignore that it's Black people that can't.

I'm close to dropping this for the plain ignorance and the gaslighting of a lot of people who watch this.
"you should just go and watch Western shows" - is just a slap in the face of every Black Korean to exist because you're just telling them to fu**ing suffer from racism in their own country.
"Koreans can have darker complexion" - duh, maybe you've heard of Black Koreans as well? Acting like this portrayal is not an issue is also just ignoring all your favorite oppas and biases with a darker complexion because if SK has a really big colorism problem too.
"Hygiene has nothing to do with race" - educate yourself on black stereotypes, that's all I'm gonna say.
"SK is behind those issues" - and? what's the point? if they won't get critcized the issue won't see any improvement.
"Dreads are not only for Black people, hippies wear them too" - yes, they do wear them and that's also racist. if you don't know why, then maybe you should educate yourself on on appropriation.

Let's hope so :)

I wish people wouldn't act like the best friend character wasn't a racial stereotype of black people. It is super racist.
I'm still watching this, while being fully aware of how problematic this is, why can't you?
what kind of googles can someone wear, that make them not see the problems? in what kind of uninformed and ignorant world can someone live to actually believe that it wasn't intentional ?????

I spoilt myself so now I don't wanna watch anymore, I disliked the plot already and now there really isn't anything for me to look forward to, however I love Kim So Hyun and I'm determined to watch this solely for her.

I miss Minho

I miss Minho

lot of screen time yes, love line not that I remember.

I feel like I'm the only person that actually likes SSK, I think she is a good actress but tends to just chose bad dramas, the ones that start good but end poorly.

Didn't know that about kids, but just let me get another example. I had a fever of 39°C last year and I could still carry myself to the doctor without any kind problems.
Kdramas definitely always exaggerate any kind of mild sickness. They be passing out for the whole day and then always suddenly completely recover over night.
Is feeling colder the only side effect or are they things you always have to keep in mind?

To be fair, mostly when a drama character has a headache or such, it's an early sign of brain tumor or something else that could be fatal. So I guess it's good that they go to the ER for every little thing.

this is just one of the small reasons I tend to dislike medical dramas.
What I hate the most in any drama is when they have a mild fever but they suddenly can't function anymore at all. they have a temperature of 37°C and suddenly everything gets blurry and they start hallucinating and all that shit.
I know people react differently, but honestly I had a temperature of 40,5°C once when I was a child, and while I definitely felt like shit and my dad had to carry me, I wasn't passing out and I did't have any kind of weird illusions, especially none where I dreamt I was getting kissed.

yeah, you're right. It's not acceptable, they should've left it out.
I've seen so many unexpected surprise kisses in Kdramas that nobody ever called sexual harassment, that my brain didn't registered it as such. I'll be more attentive from now on.

I really liked the first ep and I also like Saetbyul, there wasn't really anything for me to dislike her.
I could've done with out the dude with the fake tan/black-facing, his nasty ass fake dreads and his bad Bob Marley reggae impression. It's good to know tho that SK will keep reminding me that it has a huge racism problem.

no I dropped it

I should've left a comment about your article as well. Though I do not like the drama, I really did like reading your perspective and I really appreciate how eloquent and funny it was.

I thought people were exaggerating about the QQ and YL filler episodes .... but they were not
I wish they hadn't cut out a lot of ZF and SL scenes before they decided to extend this.