K-pop groups have long faced racism and a lack of research from Western media and the act is not new to the fandom. Big groups like BTS, EXO, TXT, and others have faced this, and now, joining the list is HYBE’s ENHYPEN. ENHYPEN actively participated in the 2023 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade recently, following which they made an appearance at the popular show ‘Good Morning America’. But now, a lot of people are criticizing the popular American morning program for doing things that they believe are insulting to ENHYPEN.
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ENHYPEN’s GMA appearance sparks controversy among fans
Fans brought up a number of controversial instances during the show, ranging from the mispronunciation of the band’s name to Juju Chang, one of the hosts, making remarks about the group’s accent and English-speaking skills.
Sam Champion and Juju Chang, two ABC reporters, took the hosts’ seats. The former mispronounced the name ENHYPEN as “ipen” when introducing the group. If that wasn’t enough, the host repeated the action a second time, referring to the group as “enpen.”
Juju Chang, a Korean-American host, at one point commented, “Your English is so much better than my Korean.” Fans found the remarks absurd and extremely disrespectful, considering that both ENHYPEN members Jay and Jake, who were raised in English-speaking countries, are highly proficient in English.
GMA deletes ENHYPEN’s post following the wrong pronunciation of their album’s name
Alongside issues such as subpar camera work and malfunctioning microphones during member speeches, the Good Morning America X account made an error in a now-deleted interview clip. They mistakenly referred to the group’s most recent album as “Blood Orange” instead of “Orange Blood.”
A fan wrote “i hope engenes know that part of making enhypen as big as possible is making sure people see them as legitimate artists that should be taken seriously for the work they do. that starts with us not tolerating disrespect and microaggressions as they’re exposed to new audiences.” While the other said “You telling a fellow American citizen that their English is better than your Korean is not only ignorant but also incredibly disrespectful. Also, butchering their group name multiple times and failing to do your job in doing a proper interview? Do better”.
