Entertainment
Trading cards depicting BTS as bruised and beaten pulled amid anti-Asian attacks
Treading card company Topps has apologised and pulled ‘insensitive’ cards which depicted BTS as battered and bruised, which comes amid a rise in hate crimes against Asian people and a shooting which killed eight – six of whom were Asian – this week.
The superstars were depicted with black and blue bruised faces on the company’s Grammys-themed Garbage Pail Kids sticker card as they were used in a game of whack-a-mole with a Grammy award.
After releasing the card’s design, fans immediately deemed the depiction insensitive, with the hashtag #RacismIsNotComedy launched as backlash against the company increased.
On Wednesday Topps released a statement in which it said BTS’ card has been removed from the deck and it won’t be printed or available.
It read: ‘We hear and understand our consumers who are upset about the portrayal of BTS in our GPK Shammy Awards product and we apologise for including it.’
BTS were featured among many other stars who performed at the Grammys, however Taylor Swift was depicted as a woodland creature, Harry Styles was renamed ‘Harry Boa’ and had a snake around his neck, while Megan Thee Stallion was dubbed Megan Thee ‘Stunning Stallion’ and rode a horse across a beach.
Seeing how Korean group BTS – which is made up of Jimin, Jungkook, Jin, V, Suga, J-Hope and RM – was depicted saw many fans call out Topps for launching the card which comes amid an increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States.
Fatima Farha wrote on Twitter: ‘…..just learned about the disgusting caricature Topps made of BTS. That is not satire. It’s downright racist. For anyone trying to brush it off as comedic, depicting violence like that toward an Asian group during these times is hateful & dangerous. what in the world.’
Another called for Topps to take accountability, writing: ‘So, they removed the BTS caricatures from their lineup but this statement provides no explanation as to why people were upset with it. With violence against Asians on the rise, to depict BTS as battered and bruised was unacceptable. Take accountability, @Topps. Do better.’
Podcaster and YouTuber Jose Ochoa called out Topps, encouraging Army – BTS’s fan base – to email the company.
They wrote: ‘I’m all for satire but there were different ways you could’ve approached the situation with the Grammys using BTS. With the rise in anti-Asian Hate Crimes, you chose to illustrate them getting beat by a grammy in a game of whac-a-mole… (sic)’
Earlier this week eight people were killed in a shooting at two spas and a massage parlour in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday.
In the first shooting two Asian women, one white woman and a white man were killed at Young’s Asian Massage, in the north of the city.
Then in short succession, three Asian women were shot at Gold Spa, before another Asian woman was killed at Aromatherapy Spa.
A 21-year-old man has been arrested in connection to all three shootings.
The Office star Mindy Kaling was one of many stars who shared their dismay over the attack as she tweeted: ‘The targeting of our Asian brothers and sisters is sickening, but not surprising given the normalizing of anti-Asian hate speech in the past year. We have to #StopAsianHate, enough is enough! (sic)’
X-Men: Apocalypse star Olivia Munn wrote: ‘The violent attacks and murders against Asians are still happening. Please help us. We need help to be safe in our country. #StopAsianHate. Please.’
The Farewell director Lulu Wang responded to a tweet by reporter Kat Chow that said: ‘I want to know their names, who and what they loved, the people they had waiting for them at home, everything they hoped for. I want to know the fabric of their days and the contexts of their lives.’
Lulu added: ‘I know these women. The ones working themselves to the bone to send their kids to school, to send money back home. In too much pain to know what else to say so I’ll just leave this here.’
