K-pop boy group Seventeen has become the subject of recent controversy due to multiple videos of members allegedly using racial slurs.
In the first video (at 1:55), the Seventeen members are sitting in an airport lobby playing a word game where they have to make sentences based on a syllable given to them. The members were given the syllable "Ma" (마), to which Choi Seungcheol responded with the Korean "Ma! Naega!" which means "I am" in Daegu dialect.
However, some international fans reacted adversely when it was believed that Seungchol had used a racial slur instead of a phrase in Korean.
In the very next round, the previous sentence was followed with the phrase "going to MAMA," (마마에 간다 아이가) said in the same Daegu dialect as the first part.
In the second incident, some fans alleged Boo Seungkwan used a racial slur right after completing a dance practice routine at home. Before he turns the camera off, Seungkwan supposedly used the "n-word." However, a slowed down version of the video asserts that the Seventeen member actually innocently said the phrase, "My Girl."
When said in Korean, "My Girl" is pronounced, "Nae gul," making the distinction between the two even more difficult. For this incident, evidence appears to show that Seungkwan simply said "My Girl" in Korean, especially since the word "girl" was repeated multiple times in the song he had just finished dancing to.
