A woman from Southern California has come under fire after expressing her opinion about the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement.
In a series of Instagram Stories, Nicky Park, a Korean model, wrote that she is “really tired of this whole Black Lives Matter bullsh*t” and that Asians standing up for Blacks is the “stupidest thing” she has ever seen.
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an international human rights movement that advocates against the systemic oppression of Black people, more commonly through protests that denounce mistreatment and violence against the community. While it has been around as early as 2013 — in response to the acquittal of the man who shot Trayvon Martin — it was recently prompted by the death of George Floyd under police intervention.
Simultaneously, as protests continue to hit the streets, so have looting, vandalism and other crimes against small businesses. Asian American-owned establishments have been targeted by rogue individuals, forcing some to fire shots to protect themselves and their properties.
In her Instagram Stories, Park argued that “all lives matter” and that no race is above another.
“How about saying all lives matter?! No race is more superior than the other. Just love one another,” she wrote.
Park pointed out that people may have forgotten how African Americans have treated Asian Americans amid the COVID-19 pandemic — incidents that contributed to a surge of discrimination cases but did not spark an equivalent movement.
“It’s like people have forgotten about how Black people were treating Asians for COVID?!?! I swear I’m not racist,” Park noted. “I’m just upset at how it’s focused on one minority when sh*t was literally just happening to Asians for COVID but you don’t see us acting out like this.”
Soon after posting, Park reportedly caught heat from users who slammed her as “tone-deaf” and “racist,” among other insults.
In response, she shared some of those critical comments in another series of Stories, where she explained her stance further.
Park denied being racist for the second time and described herself as “the most giving person you’ll ever meet, if you do ever meet me.”
“I’m not trying to deflect on this George Floyd incident. My heart is with him and his family,” she added. “But I feel like the bigger picture is that things like this happen to anyone — Asians [for instance].”
Park claimed that she herself had been arrested, falling in the hands of police who acted terribly by manhandling her and “[unintelligible] to beat the sh*t out of me.”
“Just because Asians or some people haven’t posted about [something like] this to the point where it has gotten viral, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen to us,” she said.
Park continued receiving backlash, however, drawing more intense criticism.
Among those who lambasted Park is comedian David So, who described her as “one of the most tone-deaf, f*cking b*tches I’ve never met in my life.”
“B*tch, you did not get your a** beat by cops, you lying a**, f*cking hoe,” So commented. “Oh, you were racially profiled? When? When? Tell me when b*tch! What did they think you were, the notorious ABG of West Hollywood? Shut the f*ck up, lying a** f*cking b*tch.”
So went on to compare Park to a “f*ckin old, racist, White f*ck from the south” and threatened to throw a cupcake on her “dumb f*cking face.”
Park’s most recent Instagram post — which enables comments — has received nearly 6,000 replies as of this writing. Many continued to criticize her remarks, but some offered a more constructive feedback.
“Hi! As a fellow Asian person, I really want to encourage you to rethink your stance. Of course, we should be actively fighting and combating all racism, but we are focusing on racism against Black people right now because they are literally being targeted and murdered by police,” one wrote. “There will be a time and place to focus on racism against other minorities. Now is not that time.”
However, while Park has received plenty of criticism, she also received supportive comments.
She also shared unidentified screenshots of supportive messages in her Stories.
“Asians are the ‘other’ and sadly dismissed quite frequently. I got your back, chica,” one said. “It made me sad how Asians were attacked, young and old, by the Black community. No one stood up for them. Bystanders just watched it happen. Yet, we are expected to be the ‘model minority’ and stand in solidarity when they sh*t on us during this entire pandemic.”
Feature Image Screenshots via @thenickypark
