Topps removes ‘violent’ and ‘racist’ BTS card

Topps removes ‘violent’ and ‘racist’ BTS card

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  • Collectible card maker Topps removed and apologized for its BTS “racist” and “deaf” collectible card.
  • The card shows BTS members being hurt and beaten during a blow-and-mole game.
  • The card’s controversial debut came on the day of a shootout that killed six Asian women.
  • See more stories on the Insider business page.

Collectible card maker Topps removed and apologized for its BTS sticker card after receiving a wave of reaction from Twitter users who called the card “violent” and “racist”.

The BTS card originally debuted as part of the Topps sticker card package “2021 Topps Garbage Pail Kids: The Shammy Awards”. The collection was unveiled shortly after the 63rd annual Grammy Awards and featured caricatures of famous musicians, including Billie Eilish as “Buoyant Billie” and Bruno Mars as “UF Bruno”.

However, shortly after Topps unveiled the Shammy Awards package and its BTS card, eight people, including six Asian women, were killed in shootings at three Atlanta area spas and massage parlors. The Atlanta Police Department is still investigating the reason behind this series of attacks, but the shootings have led to a national condemnation of hate crimes against Asian Americans in the United States, which have been on the rise since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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As a result, shortly after the package was revealed, people accessed Twitter to express their disappointment at the BTS card, which showed the Korean boy band being beaten and injured by a Grammy award in a whack-a-mole game.

BTS was the first K-pop band to present their own music at the awards show, but the group did not end the night with a Grammy.

Twitter user @almostdita, who identifies himself as a member of the “BTS Army” – a nickname for BTS fans -, noted that the card looked obviously different from the other cartoons in the package, and said that Topps was “supporting hatred against Asians. “

Likewise, USA Today’s audience editor Fatima Farha tweeted that the card was “totally racist” for its description of violence against Asians.

Shortly after this flood, Topps publicly apologized and announced that it would remove the BTS card.

“We heard and understood our consumers who are upset about the BTS representation in our GPK Shammy Awards product and we apologize for including it,” says Topps’ apology.

However, several Twitter users did not find this apology appropriate. This includes Jae-Ha Kim, a writer and columnist, who tweeted that the apology “was not accepted”.

Like Kim, Candace Epps-Robertson, an assistant professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, tweeted that the apology did not “seem like an attempt to recognize and understand the problem at hand”.

Between March 19, 2020 and February 28, 2021, Stop AAPI Hate – an organization that monitors anti-Asian racism – recorded nearly 3,800 incidents of discrimination against Asian Americans, which include: verbal harassment, evasion, physical or online aggression and violations of civil rights.

Hate crimes against Asian Americans in the United States reached an “alarming level” during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by United Nations officials. The report also blamed part of the blame on former President Donald Trump, who used racist terms like “China virus” in reference to COVID-19.

“We are still concerned about the documented increase in hate and misogynistic speech, including hate speech and racial discrimination in public places and online, and the contribution of the President of the United States in apparently legitimizing these violations,” noted the report.

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