K-dramas spark outrage with sexually suggestive scenes

'You call that washboard abs?' Photo: Handout

While the SBS drama series Backstreet Rookie has not responded to viewers’ complaints about its sexual objectification of women, the drama has been embroiled in yet more controversy, this time over the racist portrayal of a foreign character.

During the show’s fifth episode, a man who introduces himself as Nigerian encounters a Korean man with a similar dreadlocked hairstyle to his own in a convenience store and the two suddenly embrace each other as they “belong to the same Jamaican family.” Singing incomprehensible melodies, the two dance together to instrumental music.