Did We Miss An Opportunity with the "Get Schooled" Discourse?
Uncomfortable Topics Have The Best Chance of Being Discussed Through Art
With the drama that the latest episode of the Webtoon “Get Schooled” had, with many calling the moments of the story “racist” led to Webtoon taking the episode down, putting the series on hold on their western platform, and tweeting this:
This led to the creators making an apology statement (which you can read here).
While some might have been offended by the contents of the latest episode, I believe that this might’ve been a missed opportunity to have an uncomfortable cultural conversation. So. These are MY opinions on the subject, and I’d love to hear YOURS in the comments.
The discourse around GET SCHOOLED is very interesting.
There are two things that many are not considering:
Pay attention I promise you won’t like these answers but you need to consider them…
#1 - Webtoons is in a hard place. They’re a Korean company that publishes Korean comics while also serving a massive western base. Stories like GET SCHOOLED are from a Korean POV. This puts western readers and the US side of the company in a predicament.
Because they have to now play BOTH sides of the isle in terms of what their creators can and can’t do. It’s a hard position and from a company standpoint, there back was against the wall.
However, this brings me to #2
#2 - creators need to have the ability to tell stories that rock the boat. They’re able to engage in cultural conversations that are extremely uncomfortable, but when done right, can shed light on issues.
Here’s the thing…
While many might find this episode of “Get Schooled” racist and worthy of cancelation, there are many who might find this episode as a way to see that others see the experiences and problems that they face.
In order to tell stories that are going to move and grow us, we need to be able to tackle very difficult conversations culturally. From one POV, it might seem racist, and from another it might be what victims experience.
The creator was obviously trying to shed light on a specific POV of people that experience this stuff day to day. They should be allowed to tell their side and allow their story to go the distance.
But what are YOUR thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments, and make sure to subscribe :)
No. Sorry, but no.
Getting more context for this story, it is definitely racist. The Ethiopian character name translates to “Black Ink Stick” which is already a huge red flag. His excuse of “reverse racism” is a poor justification of using the n-word. You say that the difficult conversations need to happen, and they do! But not in the way the author handled it. SK is a homogenous country where Koreans are the ones bullying the “mixed” ones.
If you’ve read other discussions and comments, you’ll see that because SK is experiencing birth declines, those in the rural area usually intermarry with SEAsians or SAsians, so the author made a conscious decision to make the antagonist Ethiopian to justify the use of the n-word. This was in a rural setting too so it adds onto the point as well.
Because this is getting cancelled, if you look through the comments on the Korean WEBTOON, those who are defending Get Schooled are misogynistic and racist. They’re complaining that the “foreigners” are finding something to be mad at and to defend YongTaek for speaking the truth.
The author is also adding fuel to the fire of anti-immigrant sentiment.
Also, based on your reply to another comment, no one is saying that things should get banned because it offends a certain group. The problem with Get Schooled is also for its racist caricatures.
This is a dumb take 🤦