Topps Removes Garbage Pail Kids Card Depicting Beaten Up and Bruised Members of South Korean Band BTS
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Trading card company Topps has removed a Garbage Pail Kids sticker card that depicted violence against South Korean band BTS.
The company revealed their “Shammy Awards” collection following the 2021 Grammys this past weekend, which featured their traditionally satirical drawings of stars like Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, and Harry Styles.
The collection also included a card for the band BTS, titled “BTS Bruisers,” which depicted the band members as beaten up and bandaged victims of a game of Whac-A-Mole.
The card debuted on the same day as the Tuesday shootings in Atlanta, which killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women.
Although the card was likely designed prior to the shooting, it was made amid rise of anti-Asian attacks and hate crimes in the United States, sparking intense scrutiny.
The image also prompted #RacismIsNotComedy to become a top trend worldwide, as BTS fans, known as the ARMY, and other social media users demanded an apology from the artist of the illustration and from Topps.
Topps issued an apology Wednesday, announcing the removal of the card, and clarifying that it was never printed and will not be printed in the future:
— Topps (@Topps) March 17, 2021
“We hear and understand our consumers who are upset about the portrayal of BTS in our GPK Shammy Awards product and we apologize for including it,” the company wrote. “We have removed the BTS sticker card from the set, we have not printed any of the sticker card and it will not be available.”
The apology, however, was not accepted by many, as social media users noted Topps’ failure to acknowledge or understand the gravity of depicting Asian people as battered, especially in the wake of a increase in anti-Asian attacks.
Many also noted that the company apologized to those “who are upset” instead of to BTS and the Asian community.
Apology not accepted. At a time when hate crimes against Asian Americans and Asians worldwide is alarming, @Topps was so tone deaf they thought it’d be cute to release a set of garbage BTS cards that depicted them as bloodied & beaten. Dehumanizing a very real group is dangerous. https://t.co/cjOLw0gAt2
— Jae-Ha Kim 김재하 (@GoAwayWithJae) March 17, 2021
Topps came under fire recently for a racist depiction of K-pop group BTS in a line of GPK cards. Their apology seems to not understand the degree to which they screwed up, though. The apology shouldn’t be to “people who are upset” it should be to BTS and the Asian community https://t.co/M8JLfok9c2
— Satchel Price (@SatchelPrice) March 17, 2021
This is a non-apology that blames audiences and blatantly disregards the issue at hand while lacking in awareness re the severity of how hateful and harmful perpetuating anti-Asian sentiment is.
— Tamar Herman (@TamarWrites) March 18, 2021
