by As K-pop is receiving worldwide attention, there are voices that overseas fans’ racial and cultural peculiarities should be taken into account.
Recently, a foreigner pointed out on his SNS (social networking service) that “K-pop songs always contain the word ‘N'” and that it is “very racist.” In Korean, the second person’s expressions, ‘you’ or ‘night’ to the other person, sound similar to ‘Nigger’ (nigger), which demeans black people.
Overseas netizens who saw the post responded, “I know there is no intention of being demeaning, but I feel bad when I hear it,” “I hope that our language and culture will be respected as well.” K-pop fans who saw this also explained, “The Korean word for ‘Niga’ means ‘you’ and has no racist meaning at all” and “We should respect each other.”
Even global idol BTS (BTS) could not avoid ‘Niga.’ BTS changed some of their representative song ‘Fake Love’ at the US concert. The original lyrics, ‘I became the person you liked,’ were modified to ‘The person who eventually became the person I liked.’ Nigger is a word derived from the Portuguese word meaning ‘black.’
It is commonly used as an anchovy for black people in the English-speaking world and is sometimes used as nigga. Among black people, it is used in the sense of ‘this guy’ or ‘man,’ but when other races use this word to black people, it is usually judged as racist profanity.
