American Celebrity News Source TMZ is under fire for racially discriminating comments mocking Korean Girl Group EXID Jung Hwa's accent in a cheerful response to a reporter's question in English.
The KPOP sensation EXID recently arrived in LAX airport for the 13th Annual Korea Times Music Festival. Right after the segment aired on national TV, responses bashing TMZ circulated on social media in defense for Jung Hwa's foreign accent.
F(x) girl group member Amber Liu who was born and raised in California immediately expressed her dissatisfaction over the racist comments tweeting, "I was gunna stay quiet but i cant. Seriously, @tmz not cool man. All Americans face palm at your rude and childish actions."
Other Kpop stars who are fluent in English rushed to her side. One of them being singer Roy Kim who agreed to the tweet by replying, "Amen to this".
2pm member Ok Taecyeon also tweeted in Korean even though he could have easily done so in English saying, "When they make fun of someone because of their accent, are they unaware that the person has perfect command over a completely different language? Haha. Just wow.. to making fun of someone for replying in English to fans in the U.S. that came to see them."
EXID's Agency also stated that "It isn't something we can laugh off. This is clearly an act of racism. We will be contacting TMZ through Korean media on site and will be demanding countermeasures."
However, they seemed to have calmed down as they announced cancellation of the said charge.
Korean netizens on the other hand fired back in rage against TMZ replying with "As if they can speak Korean", "What's going on... When an American star comes to Korea and speaks in mispronounced Korean, we all support them and cheer them on and praise them for even trying. Are they nuts?", and "Ask them to speak Korean and we'll mock them right back".
They also praised Amber for standing up for EXID commenting, "Cool of Amber to stand up like that and put those westerners with a superiority complex where they belong."
Despite the racially discriminating comments and being laughed at by TMZ and a fellow Asian in the news room, EXID expressed their thanks for winning on a Korean music show while not being at home.
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