You don’t have to be a Stray Kids fan to feel enraged at the treatment they experienced during the 2024 Met Gala. While on the red carpet, a group of photographers hurled a variety of racist remarks at the eight-member Korean boyband.
“I’ve never seen so many unemotional faces in my life,” said one of the photographers in the video below, who is believed by fans to be working for The Independent and Getty Images. Another reporter, also working for Getty Images, agreed and mentioned, “They’re robots,” according to Mashable. Are we talking about the same Stray Kids who were brand ambassadors for Tommy Hilfiger? The group, whose members were either global ambassadors or house ambassadors for Versace or Louis Vuitton?
These insults are blatantly stereotypical, as if these photographers were a step away from saying that the boys look the same.
But it’s not just the stereotypes that caught fire on various social media sites. Several reporters were intentionally botching Korean words to get the attention of Stray Kids. Most notably, one of the photographers would ignorantly say “arigato” to Stray Kids. Either they’ve ignorantly assumed the Japanese word also means “thank you” in Korean, or that comment was an intentional microaggression.
This footage will make your skin crawl
When Stray Kids took their coats off for the outfit reveal, the group of photographers whined about having to take more pictures. They were so frustrated that you’d think that these photographers were kids who were forced by their parents to take pictures for them. But these are supposedly hired professionals for the event. You wouldn’t expect professional photographers to be clicking their tongues to address a group of clients, but a photographer from Getty Images did.
The remarks were so bold that these photographers must have assumed that none of the members could speak or understand English. Stray Kids’ leader, Bang Chan, grew up in Sydney, Australia. Felix Lee was born in Sydney, Australia. Two of the Stray Kids members are Korean-Australians who are native English speakers. All of the group’s members have conducted interviews in English before. But the facts I’m listing here don’t matter one bit, because everyone deserves respect no matter what language they speak.
The behavior these photographers exhibited was blatantly racist and unbecoming. This should not be the standard Asian performers can expect when they attend events like the Met Gala. They’ve all worked themselves to the bone to be here, and the least these photographers could do is not be racist.
