Seoul — A100 Entertainment, the label for K-pop girl group XUM, has apologised after an old video of the group insulting ethnic minorities resurfaced online.
The video, which first appeared in May, showed XUM members Dayeon, Baekah and Iaan taking DNA tests to find out their ethnic heritage. It contained derogatory comments about Filipino, African and Native American people.
XUM’s label A100 Entertainment uploaded an official statement on Twitter on Thursday (Sept 24) morning addressing that there was a clear “racial problem” in the clip.
“We acknowledge and apologise for the mistake of the editors using misleading exaggerated scripts and offensive subtitles.
“There seems to be no excuse. I bow my head and apologise for any areas of displeasure.
“We will also be more cautious when making videos in the future and in everything else, we promise that this will never happen again.
“A100 and XUM are against racism and aim for equality and happiness for all of the world,” read the statement.
Previously from the brand Neon Punch, Dayeon, Baekah and Iaan had just dropped their debut music video under XUM on Tuesday (Sept 22) when the controversial clip began making the rounds on Twitter.
The girls made predictions about each other’s DNA results, with Dayeon saying that Iaan might have Ghanaian heritage. This was met with raucous laughter and clapping.
Iaan had a grey filter on her image with a caption appearing onscreen labelling her as “the girl between two exceptionally white members”.
Dayeon also mentioned that Baekah may have African heritage too as “she has a very loud voice” and Dayeon then imitated a person shouting. Baekah responded to Dayeon, saying that she is like a Native American tribal chieftain and asked her: “Do you feel like an Indian chief?”
There was another offensive scene where Baekah predicted Iaan would be part Filipina but Iaan quickly glanced over and corrected her with a laugh, saying instead “Vietnam”.
Some fans claimed that Iaan’s reaction was insinuating that there was something wrong with being from the Philippines and were angry at the trio for promoting negative racial stereotypes. /TISG