K-Drama ‘Penthouse 3’ Receives Backlash After Cultural Appropriation Controversy

One of the highly anticipated K-Dramas of the year, ‘Penthouse’, returns for its third season.

In the latest installment, viewers were introduced to a new character – Alex played by Park Eun Suk.

Alex is another character’s brother, Logan Lee, who is played by the same actor.

Gangster image gone wrong?

K-Drama fans from all over the world got a rude shock in the latest episode of ‘Penthouse’ after Alex was sporting dreadlocks, (bad quality ones), grills, tattoos, and even had an accent akin to someone of African-American descent.

On SBS’s official instagram page, fans flocked to the comments section to point out that this was wrong on so many level and the South Korean TV network should apologise especially to those they have offended.

Clips of the scene have also gone viral on Twitter and attracted backlash from netizens.

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According to Soompi, both SBS and Park have put out a statement on the controversy.

“Regarding the drama ‘The Penthouse’ character Alex, I’d like to let everyone know that none of the appearances that were driven by the character were falsely intentional to harm, mock, disrespect, or discourage the African-American community. I’d like to apologize to the people who took offense by the character’s appearance,” Park said via his TikTok.

“It was more admiration of the culture than mockery, but now I’m aware that the approach was more CA [cultural appropriation]. It was a wrong attempt for character development.”

“Again, I’d like to apologize to those who took offense; I as a minority myself should’ve known better. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to grow in awareness.”

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SBS also echoed the same sentiment and said it was never their intention to mock a specific race or culture.

Do you think it’s cultural appropriation or cultural appreciation that was poorly executed?