K-Pop star G-Dragon was not making a racial statement yesterday when he appeared in what looked like "blackface" makeup in an Instagram tribute to Trayvon Martin, according to a spokesperson for the performer. The representative said that Dragon was in the process of shooting a new album cover, which involved him wearing different colors of face paint.
"GD was simply wearing different facepaint colors and this is a HUGE misunderstanding," the spokesperson said in an email. "The facepaint is only a color variation for his album cover which includes black, white, and red. It is in no way meant to be a political or racial statement."
This may be entirely true, but the similarity of pose and framing to the iconic Martin photo that's been emulated by many the world over, including Frank Ocean and Diddy, makes us wary. Plus it's not the first time that the performer has painted himself black (or the first time he's been chided for it). The vocalist dressed to mimic Andre 3000 in a music video a few years back, in an action that had both absolutely no political significance and no doubt as to his intentions.
There was admittedly no caption to go along with the photo, so G-Dragon's true intentions remain hidden until he releases a statement, something that doesn't appear to be on the horizon. In the previous 24 hours, the performer has only tweeted a series of mysterious messages involving the number eight, possibly a hint regarding his upcoming album.
One sharp Mstarz reader pointed out that Dragon promotes for the Korean cosmetics company Saem, and the "blackface" could have been a mud mask product. It seemed like a good theory until the statement from his rep on Thursday.
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