Mamamoo's Hwasa did NOT wear 'Nigerian' costume or talk about George Floyd, here's what really happened
South Korean singer and member of the girl band Mamamoo, Ahh Hye-jin, known by her stage name Hwasa, has come under fire for allegedly wearing traditional 'Nigerian costume' in one of her videos, causing a fan war on Twitter. The singer is being severely criticized by some for allegedly mentioning George Floyd in the video, the 46-year-old Black man who died due to police brutality.
However, Hwasa’s fans have come forward to defend the singer saying she did not disrespect Floyd and nor did she insult the Black community, which has led to a heated debate among the Twitterati. It all started after the singer was called out for wearing something that allegedly resembled Nigeria’s traditional costume in a video, reportedly representing a character called Georgia, according to her fans. The video went viral when a few of them claimed that Hwasa "mentioned" Floyd, thus calling her “racist” and “ignorant”.
Her fans quickly took to Twitter to clear the air and established that Hwasa never mentioned Floyd and was only wearing the costume to portray Georgia to "scare people" as a part of a challenge. One fan wrote, "F**k you for spreading false info and using a innocent man’s murder to fuel fanwars. Hwasa did not mention George Floyd and was talking about a character that a comedian came up with on the show 'I live alone' which she has been on multiple times." Another responded to this and said, "This may not be the person Hwasa was dressing up as but she was NOT talking about George Floyd nor did she say she was. 'I’ve already seen georgina' is what the people in the elevator that she bumped into said."
Meanwhile, a few have pointed out that "the comment isn’t the issue". "Everyone knows the comment is not about George. It's the outfit itself that is the problem." One Twitter user who seemed clearly upset wrote, "Stfu you just making this worse. Hwasa did/still does cultural appropriation and people have the right to be upset especially the BLACK COMMUNITY THE CULTURE SHE'S STEALING FROM TIME AND TIME. So if you not black kindly stfu."
Expressing a similar opinion another tweeted, "I'm so sorry to nigerian & black fans of hwasa. What she did was wrong, your culture is not funny and not something to be mocked."
However, MBC issued a statement later clarifying that Hwasa’s “outfit originated from Korean ‘sauna’ look” that she “often wore” on the program. It further reads, “We had no intention of comically presenting a traditional outfit of a particular country. We realize that some of you have falsely identified Hwasa’s outfit as a reflection of the Nigerian traditional outfit. Furthermore, due to the ‘comic’ genre of our show, some of you have shown concern suggesting a comical reflection of traditional outfits and the possibility of it leading to racism. However, we want to assure you that we had no intention of relating her outfit to a specific culture. We hope this provides an explanation for your concerns.”
Some of them are of the opinion that even if Hwasa was being called out for cultural appropriation, people shouldn’t have dragged Floyd into it. "I can't justify what she done is wrong or no because I'm not part of the culture but, using George Floyd's for stirring drama when it's not mentioned is wrong. You can call out hwasa but don't use sensitive issues," said one.