The incident occurred during the November 1 broadcast of MBC C-Radio's 'Idol True Colors'. Starting at the 13:45 mark in the clip above, Wendy is asked to show off an individual talent. After joking that she has many, she says, "When I went to a foreign country, I learned to imitate white people and black people, especially black men."
Wendy starts by imitating white women, saying that their voices are a bit high-pitched. After the set laughs and applauds Wendy's impression, Zhoumi replies, "It's like that in the movies," and miss A's Jia proceeds to give her own impression with a loud, "Oh. My. Gosh!" Wendy goes on to imitate black women, saying their eyes and expressions are particularly important. The set, once again, applauds Wendy, saying, "You're right, you're right." Wendy then concludes with an impression of black men, saying, "For black men, because they're like gangsters, they're like…," before giving her impression.
The clip has received an overwhelming amount of negative attention and also reported on American gossip site Bossip with comments saying, "The ignorance in K-Pop [world] is ASTOUNDING [...]," "Wow, this is absolutely disgusting of Wendy to do. It's not funny, it's racist and ignorant [...]," and, "I am beyond tired of [these] idols making these kind of impersonations. It's okay if that's how ONE person acts [like] that [to] them but to say this is ALL black girls[,] this is ALL black guys, it's so ignorant. [...]"
Others have defended Wendy, saying, "I'm brown-skinned and I don't find this racist at all…. People are overreacting," and, "She was not being racist, she was stereotyping. Those are two different things, but she still did wrong and should apologize."
Do you find what Wendy did racist and offensive or are international netizens overreacting?
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in.]
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