Yoon Mi-rae 윤미래
Yoon Mi-rae (윤미래), also known as T or Tasha, is Korea's most prominent female rapper. Born in Texas, and raised in South Korea as a biracial African-American Korean, Mi-rae has faced discrimination on both sides.
In the U.S., she was not seen as "Black enough," while in Korea, she was a "Yankee" (DT MFBTY INTERNATIONAL). She did not have friends, was called racial slurs, and eventually dropped out of school at age 15 (Kim).
When she first debuted in the 90s, "hip-hop was like a secret society" and rappers were considered gangsters. She was told to hide her father's African-American background and mask her skin color with light makeup.
In her song "Black Happiness," she shares her experiences with discrimination growing up and in the industry and proudly claims her heritage. Today, she serves as an ambassador for multicultural youth, and is an advocate against child abuse with her husband Tiger JK.
Place of Birth: Texas, USA
Nationality: American, Korean
Background of Parents: Father is African-American and mother is Korean
Languages Spoken: Korean (native), English (native)
Profession: Rapper
Sentiment Data from Youtube
[MV] Yoonmirae(윤미래) _ KawiBawiBo(가위바위보)
Video Summary
This music video title is referring to the children's game "rock, paper, scissors." In Yoon Mi-Rae's lyrics, she draws symbolism to hip hop's principles: scissors for peace, rock for power, and paper for hands in a pile for unity. In some clips, she is seen wearing breads, which sparked some debates in the comments.
Data Collection Parameters
Collected a thread of 55 comments, sparked by the comment "anyone new claiming culture appropriation she’s half back She has the right to be proud of both cultures so go away" with 825 likes, and sorted them into the different categories shown below. Comments could fit into multiple categories.
Due to the subjective nature of interpreting the comments there may be some discrepancy in the data. To see examples of comments that fit strictly into one category, view the excel sheet with extracted comments. They are labeled colored in column N accordingly to match the graph above.
Data Analysis
From the graph, it is clear that a lot of people acknowledge that Yoon Mi-Rae is both Black and Korean, with at least 18 comments stating that she is Black. Additionally, 16/55 comments were discussing that Mi-Rae does not need to act a certain way to be considered Black. Many of the comments validating Yoon Mi-Rae as a biracial individual mentioned that she has received discrimination due to her racial background and skin color and has shared her narrative in her music. This supports that Mi-Rae's music and efforts in promoting multiculturialism are influencing society and its perception of transnational people.