So this is the first of two threads that I will be writing, one will be about the AGUST D sample debacle and the other one about my stance on BTS and the BLM movement. I will start with the AGUST D debacle but before I do I'd like to introduce myself +
I am a black woman, raised between a lot of different places, currently living in the United states for the past 10 years, I am well traveled, well read, and am currently in the process a degree in communication and graphic design with a minor in +
Psychology. I do not mince my words, I do not need other people to speak for me, and I certainly do not speak for other people. I believe in fact checking, I believe in experience and the concept of precedence. I do not condone violence but I believe in freedom of expression +
And that includes freedom of speech, and artistic freedom and license. I love art in all its forms and I believe that everyone is allowed to form opinions and voice them. But I also believe that just as you can have and opinion and voice it, you should expect other people+
Will have an opinion on your opinion and will voice it. I have seen people use the words "validity", "valid", "validation" on my TL this entire week in association to their PERSONAL opinions concerning the creative liberties of someone that they do not know+
PERSONALLY. On a matter (Jim jones massacre), they obviously have not researched thoroughly or PERSONALLY, based on non-factual "facts", while proclaiming and swearing that their outrage is "VALID" either because of the color of their skin (being black) or on behalf of +
Black people. The definition of the word "validity" according to google and the Webster dictionary is 1) the quality of being logically or factually sound and grounded 2) the state of being legally or officially binding or acceptable and sustainable. The emphasis here is on+
The words "logically or factually sound" and "legally binding". All opinions matter, but not all opinions have "Validity" therefore not all opinions are "Valid" because not all opinions are based on logic, and not all opinions are based on facts, and opinions +
Are certainly not legally binding or acceptable, and should not be. Just like all judgements are not fair and as a black woman I know all about unfair judgment and opinions that are based on lies, ignorance, lack of assessment, and all around flawed logic (and i can assure you+
Flawed logic is still logic). that brings us to the problem at hand here. "People are mad because AGUST D sampled a speech of Jim Jones, mass murderer, who was "supposedly racist and mostly killed black people" in a song that "supposedly had nothing to do with the subject" on +
album that "supposedly had nothing to do with raising awareness". People are angry that AGUST D "supposedly was aiming at black people" and because he used the sample and people are/were certain and secure in their opinions that AGUST D is a racist, and a liar and +
Certain and secure in their personal opinions that AGUST D should either EXPLAIN himself to them, or APOLOGIZE for using the sample, or repent on his "sins" and even change the contents of HIS song." All of that so they can feel "validated " in their PERSONAL opinions+
And that's where people FAIL. That's where people are WRONG. Not for forming their PERSONAL opinions, not for voicing their PERSONAL opinions, but for INSISTING on the VALIDITY of those PERSONAL opinions, and refusing to acknowledge that they are WRONG when presented with FACTS+
Because as we've previously established in order for an opinion to have validity, it needs to be based on "FACTS" first, and also needs to take into account intent, other contextual factors, as well as variables like precedence, and consistency, and last but not least +
The observed moral and social character of the person being evaluated and judged (in this case AGUST D). A lot of you were hollering at the top of your lungs that jim jones was a racist, when he in fact was not. Exhibit A and B + 
A lot of you were hollering at the top of your lungs that he mostly targeted black people when he in fact did not. Exhibit C, D, E and F+
Was jim jones a mass murderer? Yes he was. Did he kill a lot of black people? Yes he did. Was he racist? According to people who personally knew him, no he was not. Did he kill "just" black people? No, he did not. Therefore, the outrage associated with and accompanied by+
The opinions that are/were based on those "supposed facts" is therefore rendered INVALID and so are those opinions. Because once you take the race out of it, all of this self-righteousness about talking on behalf of black people, or having you black voice silence becomes +
Null. And other people, of other ethnicities like jews, asians, Mexicans and all the other social minorities that he killed should have a say in it. It's not a black people event, it's a humanity event, and it says a lot about the U.S that over 900 people were willing+
To follow a lunatic into the wilderness instead of living in a society where they were being treated like shit and said lunatic promised them equality and fairness (things for which we are still fighting today). Once those facts were presented, y'all started hollering about +
"why would he sample a mass murderer though, that's so wrong!". And to answer you, I'll say this. First of all, that's AGUST D's prerogative, his right, his license to use whatever the fuck he wants to use in his music. You are not him, you are not his producer, you+
Do not get to ask him why he formats his art the way he does, and why he chooses to express himself the way he does, just like he can't tell you how to speak and how to express yourself. There is no true right or wrong way of expressing yourself, there is only +
Right or wrong messages, right or wrong intent and right or wrong audience. 2nd, HE WARNED Y'ALL! THE AUDIENCE, there was a big ass EXPLICIT written on it, and y'all listened at your own risk.+
3rd) AGUST D is first and foremost a rapper, before he was SUGA of BTS, before he even became AGUST D he was a rapper. Someone with deep love and respect for Hip hop culture and who was And still is influenced by hip hop culture. And sampling is a huge part of Hip Hop culture +
Rappers and hip hop lovers have been sampling for a long time. One rapper I'm sure everyone knows, EMINEM, has sampled a known serial killer and rapist (TED BUNDY) in one of his Songs off of one of his most well known albums Relapse+
People applauded him for it, people called it ART. Because that's what it was, ART. EMINEM didn't have to explain himself for sampling TED BUNDY, so why should AGUST D, a rapper like EMINEM, have to explain himself to you+
4th) this outrage at the fact that he sampled a mass murdered loses VALIDITY because I believe that most of you being outraged and hurt are listening to western music in general and that's filled with blatant violence glorification, drug use glorification, disrespect of +
Women, incitement to cheat, lie, steal, kill and do all kinds of terrible things, and we still call that ART, and no one has to apologize or explain themselves to any of you. Why is that though? I'd like you all to think about that for a moment. Because while you are +
Hollering about racism and othering and discrimination and all that shit, you are failing to recognize that you are doing the same thing to someone else, because apart from him being a succesfull asian rapper, I can't think of any other reason why he should be the only+
One that has to explain his use of this sample when a slew of other western artists both rap and pop based have used the same sample but have never had to explain themselves to anyone. THIS is discrimination and THIS is racism, and what makes it worse is that some of you+
Hollering at the top of your lungs call yourself ARMY. To me, that does not add up, not even a little, and I'll go as far as to say that in my PERSONAL opinion y'all are not ARMY (I'll tell you why I think so in a moment) and y'all are in fact the ones being racist as fuck+
You may be fans of BTS, but you are not ARMY. You may listen to BTS music and enjoy it, but you are not ARMY. You may find the boys cute, handsome, adorable, sexy, but you are not ARMY. You may purchase their music, and their content but that still does not make you ARMY+
And the logic behind these statements that I made falls into the same brand of logic we use to say that "sasaengs" are not ARMY. "Sasaengs" love BTS music but they don't listen to the message of their song, "sasaengs" love hearing the boys speak but are not+
Listening to their actual words. "Sasaengs" have no real respect for the boys, their privacy, and them as artists and human beings in general. "Sasaengs" obsessively purchase BTS music and follow BTS around but it is obvious that this obssession comes from an image+
Or an idea that they have of the boys and their relationship with the boys and not on any type of grounded and real connection, however real they might feel said connection is. And when that image is challenged, Sasaengs turn into antis and also might even turn violent+
Am I calling y'all sasaeng? No, i'm not. But there is a parallel to be made and I PERSONALLY believe that the comparison is quite apt. Why? Because according to some of y'all, AGUST D, AKA SUGA's use of the sample was enough for you to assume that he intended to hurt people, +
Or that he was "racist", or that he didn't know what he was doing when he used the sample. First of all, the fact that y'all might even suspect that his intentions were to hurt people proves that you hear BTS music but don't listen to their message, you love hearing the boys +
Speak but don't listen to what they are actually saying. If y'all were ready to believe that they are racist based on some half-baked argument, that tells me again that you have not been listening to them at all. Also for y'all to believe that, AGUST D did not know what he was+
Doing is perfect proof that again you spent your time looking at them, watching them talk, hearing their music but not actually listening to anything they had to say at all, because time and time again, they have proven and shown how detail oriented they were in their art+
This is the same AGUST D that researched 20 different sword style for daechwita, insisted that it be shot in a period drama setting, and then proceeded to jam pack the song with as many cultural references to go with the visuals of said song. From a group and label that have +
Created an entire universe, ongoing for almost 6 years now. This where consistency and precedence become even more important. They have consistently shown throughout the years that they look over every detail. There were rookie mistakes throughout the years, but they've+
Owned up to those and have been consistent in their message, and the ways that they deliver them, and for some y'all to believe that this is proof that he didnt know what he was doing just so you can comfort your own fragile/misguided ideas and projections on what his art+
Should or shouldnt sound or look like is utterly delusional. BUT BIG HIT APOLOGIZED!!!! THEY SAID HE DIDN'T KNOW!!! Yes, I've had this screamed at me multiple times and I'd like to ask you to think about this from a business point of view. Because first and foremost+
Big hit is a business.
Imagine this, you own a publishing and management company which publishes and manages different authors. One of your best selling authors decides that they want to publish a book where they reference a mass murderer in order to make a point+
Imagine this, you own a publishing and management company which publishes and manages different authors. One of your best selling authors decides that they want to publish a book where they reference a mass murderer in order to make a point+
Whatever the point may or may not be is not important. It is what it is a point, an emotion, an opinion, a feeling, a point. Upon releasing the book, the fans are loving it, it's doing incredibly well and then all of a sudden, a large group of fans start hollering+
"We demand an explanation as to why said author used a mass murderer, the author was being racist, i feel hurt by the authors choice of words, i don't understand the point so the book must have been badly written, explain it to me, apologize for hurting my feelings,+
Change the fucking formatting of the book or we will start boycotting!" The publishing house as a business has to do damage control both for themselves and for the author's sake, they're not gonna explain the book to you because it's a piece of art and art is subjective+
If you cant understand it that's your problem. So they will do the next best thing, they will apologize, and find a way to soothe your "hurt" feelings because as a customer they need you to support and buy their products, they need you to continue to support their authors, +
so they will tell you whatever you want to hear, and they will be more careful about censoring their authors from now on and making sure that they dont talk about controversial issues, that they don't bring up subjects that might "ruffle" your previously "hurt" feathers+
And little by little, this amazing author, is gonna continue to get censored and censored and censored. Until they stop writing interesting stories, and stop bringing up controversial subjects and turn into any other authors out there. Why?+
Because their " supposed audience" keeps trying to tell them how to write, and how how to express themselves and keep trying to dictate what they should or shouldn't talk about or in what way they should or shouldnt express themselves. If you understood this analogy, +
congratulations, you have basic reading Comprehension and good deductive reasoning, and if you did not. Let me help you understand. Big hit apologized not because AGUST D was wrong, but because they are a business and need your money, and this whole mess might result in +
AGUST D being more filtered, less raw and less open and more restricted in the way he expresses himself in his writing because y'all couldn't be bothered to google some shit, actually read his lyrics, and try to understand what he was trying to say and decided you had a patent+
on the way he expresses Himself. And therein lies the hypocrisy of it all. Before someone pointed it out (an anti, a hater of all people), none of y'all "woke" people even knew what the sample was or the history behind it even. Because of this song, you all learned+
About a man and an event that would've flown under the radar for you and you still wanna argue that he didn't bring awareness to anything for you. Please check the definition of the word "awareness" before you use it. And some of y'all are so sure that the song +
Has no contextual commonality with the jim jones massacre? But what authority do you have to make such a claim? Why are your theories on the meaning of the song correct while other people's are not? Were you in his brain when he wrote the song+
I think not, so please refrain from telling other people how to feel about the song. Which leads me to my next point, if you don't like the song, don't listen to it but you had absolutely no right to demand an explanation, an apology or any type of changes on the song+
More hypocrisy ensues: Y'all have been hollering all week about people silencing your voice but then you turned around and did the same thing to AGUST D. Y'all have been hollering all week about being outraged that he sampled a mass murderer+
When you all listen to western music without saying shot about the terrible things they glorify. Y'all have been hollering all week about your feelings being hurt without considering how hurt AGUST D must feel for having to change something that he has worked so hard on+
And spent so much time and effort on just so he can cater to your "hurt" feelings. Y'all have been hollering all week about freedom of expression when you don't give a damn about other people's freedom of expression. Y'all have been claiming to be ARMY when you were willing+
To slander, discard and disrespect someone that you supposedly love and support without even investigating for the facts and the truth. Y'all have been calling your opinions "valid" when they were all formed on lies and prestence. And y'all refuse to apologize and admit that+
You are wrong but expect others to apologize and admit they are wrong (when in fact they are not). Using the race card to bully people into shutting up and agree with you is exactly what we as black people have been fighting against and y'all are absolutely and utterly +
Wrong for doing that. Using the race card to hurt someone else and make them feel bad about themselves and their right to speak up is utterly disgusting and to all those people who did that, as a black woman I say fuck you very much. To all those "armys" who left +
I say good riddance, and we dont need your conviction and your support in the fandom because they are/were non existent anyways. To all those people who used this opportunity to spread hate and confusion and cause pain, I say fuck you very much and wait for karma +
Cause it's coming. To all those antis who planned this, I'd like to say this: "GET A FUCKING LIFE! AND FOCUS ON YOUR FAVES!" and to all the "fans" who wrote those emails and all the fans who started insulting other fans and started insulting AGUST D, I say this+
YOU fucked up, YOU were wrong, YOU need to apologize and YOU need to check yourself and ask yourself if you are truly ARMY. Because ARMY, true ARMY loves and respect everyone, true ARMY researches and fact checks (when it truly matters), and most importantly true ARMY supports+
And that's my black ass's PERSONAL but VALID opinion based on 8 years in the fandom, factually sound logic and a whole lot of critical thinking. Whoever wants to can come at me, im not scared of debates but I will block stupidity and ignorance cuz i don't need that. THE END
