Following the “2022 SOMEDAY PLEMORA” festival held on Oct. 9 at Yonsei University, fans accused Crush of racism.

While performing his song “Don’t Forget”, Crush began to high-five fans while walking towards the main stage. However, several videos of the singer avoiding contact with two Black fans were posted online. 

The video quickly spread on social media. Twitter user @tulipyeo who claims to be one of the fans Crush waved off also tweeted that she wants “other ppl 2 know what he did!”.  

A day after the festival, Crush addressed the allegations on his Instagram account. He made a post explaining that he did not interact with fans in particular sections as a safety precaution. After seeing fans getting too close to the fences and pushing those in the front row, the singer made the judgment to refrain from high-fiving some fans. Crush apologized for the misunderstanding and made it clear that he would never “discriminate nor favor anyone”. 

Though the singer continues to receive criticism online, there are many fans who stand with Crush. A fan who was at the festival released a video from another angle containing audio of the singer saying “You might get hurt, be careful.” Crush can also be seen steering away from Korean fans in other sections.

After this new video was posted, #ApologizeToCrush trended on Twitter, with fans demanding his accusers to apologize. 

However, this has angered some even more. Many disagree that Crush deserves an apology, mostly because of his history. In 2016, Crush appeared on a singing reality tv show—“King of Masked Singer”—during which he wore a mask of a Black character in a South Korean cartoon. He was called out for his insensitivity and caricature of Black people, and this issue surfaced recently once again.  

“This controversy has been very confusing to me,” Melissa Kim (11), fan of Crush, said. “Though I want to believe that he is not racist, at the same time, based on the video I watched, I fully understand why many fans interpreted his actions that way. I hope that fans coming from different sides attempt to understand each other in order to come to a quicker reconciliation.”