Security guards accused of racism at K-pop concert in Paris

A video from X (formerly Twitter) shows security guards forcing an Asian male on the ground and escorting him from the arena, sparking accusations of racism towards Asians. [SCREEN CAPTURE]
A video from X (formerly Twitter) shows security guards forcing an Asian male on the ground and escorting him from the arena, sparking accusations of racism towards Asians. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

A video showing security guards manhandling fans at a K-pop concert in Paris has gone viral on social media, with guards accused of racism and excessive violence toward Asians.

The video shows numerous security guards forcing a male presumed to be Asian on the ground andย ejecting him from the arena.

The โ€œMcountdown in Franceโ€ concert took place on Sunday at the Paris La Dรฉfense Arena, with around 22,000 fans attending. The show featured many K-pop acts like Ateez, NCT Dream, ZeroBaseOne, EL7Z UP and Treasure.

Related Article

Fans claimed that the guards were particularly violent toward Asians. On social media, especially X (former Twitter), online users claimed that security made Asians open their bags despite standing still and leave if they had a camera.

The problem was, according to the user, that security didnโ€™t do the same for white people who were taking pictures.

Other online users also claimed that they saw โ€œa bunch of Asians being dragged out of the stadium simply because they had a camera inside their bags.โ€

The staff members told the Korean press that the man in the video was holding a professional long-range DSLR camera banned from the concert. The European fans were OK because they were using their phones.

To find out more about K-pop, visitย Celeb Confirmed!ย 

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]