I’m genuinely glad Lisa is speaking about the racism she’s experienced. But the way it’s being handled makes me uncomfortable, especially given the history. Last year a trainee video surfaced of Lisa and the BLACKPINK members except Jisoo, rapping along to a song containing the N-word. It hurt a lot of black fans, myself included, and none of the members ever really acknowledged it. No explanation, no apology.
So learning this will be addressed in Lisa’s documentary feels complicated. The press release promises we’ll hear “what Lisa herself has to say,” alongside behind the scenes footage of her and her management discussing it. And I keep asking, why did it take a documentary, a production team, and a commercial rollout for this to finally be addressed? You don’t need any of that to apologize for using a slur. You just say you were wrong, that you didn’t understand the weight of the word, that you’re sorry. If adults around you normalized it, say that too. There’s a way to give context without dodging accountability.
What bothers me most is the possibility that the hurt caused to Black fans becomes just another obstacle in Lisa’s personal narrative, packaged for the story, when we never actually heard from her directly. It points to something bigger about how celebrities relate to racism: often clear-eyed about it when they’re the ones harmed, but unable to see the humanity of people they’ve hurt through their own actions. Lisa can be both a victim of racism and someone who took part in something that hurt Black people. That contradiction shouldn’t be scary. It should be where the honest conversation starts.
This lands especially hard in kpop, an industry built heavily on Black music and culture while Black fans often feel unwelcome in it, and BLACKPINK specifically have faced criticism for leaning into caricature. Black BLINKs aren’t asking for perfection. We’re asking to be considered. Too often, being a Black BLACKPINK fan means compartmentalizing your own experience just to keep enjoying the group.
So yes, I hope Lisa talks about the racism she faced, and I hope people take it seriously. But I hope people also understand why some of us will be listening while still remembering what happened to us. Both conversations deserve room to exist.
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