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White Influencer Sparks Backlash After Announcing They Identify As 'Non-Binary Korean'
Instagram influencer Oli London is facing a new controversy after a 9-minute-long YouTube video in which they came out as a "non-binary person who identifies as Korean."
London's speech, given under a mask, in a bucket hat and sunglasses, said the pronouns they prefer are "they/them/Korean/Jimin," the latter being in reference to BTS boyband member Park Jimin.
They posted their announcement of YouTube...
...and Twitter.
I\u2019m officially KOR/EAN #korenboy— Oli London (@Oli London) 1624039130
London was born and raised racially, ethnically and culturally as British and White.
London has undergone several cosmetic surgery procedures to change their appearance. They also said they would be asking to be referred to as "Park Jimin HueningKai Taeyong Imnida."
London's "transracial transition" was condemned as racist, culturally appropriative, entitled, an example of White privilege and transphobic—especially by fans of the Korean boyband BTS.
I am BEGGING yall to just ignore oil london please, youre just giving them the attention they want. just block and ignorepic.twitter.com/LYJjSzikVK— lucien \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udff3\u200d\u26a7 crying over turin turambar again (@lucien \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udff3\u200d\u26a7 crying over turin turambar again) 1624260852
Not Oil London saying their neo pronouns are kor/Ean. You are British not Korean no matter how much surgery you get. How do they actually have a platform— Amber\u00b7BLM (@Amber\u00b7BLM) 1624291515
Wow #oillondon\u2019s media is wildly disturbing. He did major facial surgery to look Korean and now he\u2019s identifying as Korean. He is British asf.— M. (@M.) 1624816503
tw/ oil london \n\nthey really got surgery to look ASIAN?? all my life having slanted eyes wasn\u2019t a cool thing it still isn\u2019t cool? coming out as korean isn\u2019t a thing? they\u2019re white? like SO WHITE? i\u2019m honestly very very scared— mishy \ud83d\udc99 (@mishy \ud83d\udc99) 1624511151
can someone like tell oil london that being trans is not the same as being white and wanting to be korean because no one can change their race— aster / astrid / seng \u2606 Big Daddy Slim is back? (@aster / astrid / seng \u2606 Big Daddy Slim is back?) 1624697595
London has spent over $150,000 on plastic surgery in order to make themselves look more Korean, including skin lightening and blepharoplasty—which is used to alter eye shape.
Trying on another culture through superficial stereotypes without actually living as a part of that culture, knowing what it really means to be another race or ethnicity or ever experiencing any of the negative racism or xenophobia is the criticism leveled at London and other White people who have tried to claim "transracialism" should be recognized.
i am a person belonging to the non-binary umbrella, and this offends me A LOT, being Korean is a nationality, not a gender, you are making fun of all the non-binary umbrella, the neo pronouns and the entire lgbtqa + community! really stop please— ` felix lvs yuyu SKZ ARE 8 NOW 4STOY LROSMFOO NO P (@` felix lvs yuyu SKZ ARE 8 NOW 4STOY LROSMFOO NO P) 1624141135
You can be non binary that's who you are but you are not and you will never be korean.— \u15b4\u15e9R\u13c6\u15e9\u2077\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf9 (@\u15b4\u15e9R\u13c6\u15e9\u2077\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf9) 1624098681
this is an absolute mockery of being non-binary i hate thishttps://twitter.com/olilondontv/status/1406005541093187587\u00a0\u2026— aidan (@aidan) 1624559542
Asian people and organizations criticized London for stealing only the positive stereotypes they wanted from Korean culture. Trans activists called London's transracial declaration transphobic.
London responded by saying they were the real victim, calling Asians and trans advocates who criticized their racism and transphobia "homophobic and non-binary phobic" without addressing any specific points their detractors made.
"This is actually the official LGBTQI+ flag of South Korea…GOOGLE IT," he said, of the rainbow version of the South Korean flag he posted.
"Anyone that puts a negative comment is anti-LGBT and anti-equality. So sad in 2021 people will judge others on how they identify! 🏳️🌈"
People pointed out negative criticism based on somebody adopting a racist version of other people's culture was not homophobia.
As someone who is part of the LGBT community, I still agree with the comments I saw on the previous tweet. Its disrespectful to Korean people and to Non-binary people. You CANNOT identify as a race. Period.— \ud83d\udc9c ~ KT ~ \ud83d\udc9c (@\ud83d\udc9c ~ KT ~ \ud83d\udc9c) 1624127126
damn guess i\u2019m a non-binary non-binaryphobe bc what is thishttps://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1406306073489907712\u00a0\u2026— meri (@meri) 1624316993
No one is talking about you being non-binary, they are talking about how you mock around a national flag That's incredibly disrespectful and mean. If you really "identify" as a Korean, you should know that those people love their flag and HAVE TO respect it. And you should do ithttps://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1406306073489907712\u00a0\u2026— Srta.Aqualita\ud83c\udf5e\ud83d\udc1d (@Srta.Aqualita\ud83c\udf5e\ud83d\udc1d) 1624263153
Because your "identification" mocks Koreans and LGBTQ+ peoplehttps://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1406306073489907712\u00a0\u2026— Lis (@Lis) 1624226111
and a simple google search could help u realise that ur whitehttps://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1406306073489907712\u00a0\u2026— mal\u2661 (@mal\u2661) 1624203009
While we can congratulate the bravery of coming out as non-binary, identifying as a different race by adopting cultural stereotypes is actually racism.
You can read more about why "transracialism" and transgender identity are not similar here.