The K-pop industry is no stranger to cultural appropriation. Whether it's embedded in the music itself (which is often steeped in rap and "urban" music genres) or the sartorial style—dreads ...

From K-pop artists sporting dreadlocks and cornrows in their music videos to some even performing with blackface, many K-pop and K-hip hop artists have been slammed for stealing from black culture ...

So we end up seeing repeated controversies about K-pop stars wearing their hair in dreadlocks. On top of that, as a relatively homogenous nation, it’s harder for Koreans to grasp how much black ...