K-pop star faced backlash for wearing 'vintage' Confederate flag shirt. His label apologized.

[Coventina]

K-pop artist Mark Lee’s record label, Upper Room, issued an apology Tuesday after public criticism erupted over photographs showing the singer wearing a t-shirt featuring a Confederate flag.

The 26-year-old rapper and singer debuted in 2016, and transitioned to a solo career in April 2025 after departing from K-pop boyband groups NCT 127 and NCT Dream, Complex reported..

In a statement posted Tuesday on his label’s Instagram Story, the label apologized and explained that the garment Lee wore to a fan event was chosen as a vintage wardrobe item, according to Complex.

“The garment was selected solely as a vintage wardrobe item. However, upon recognizing the historical significance and sensitivity associated with the symbol displayed on the t-shirt, we took measures to ensure that it would not be visible in any official content,” the label wrote in the statement.

https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2026/06/k-pop-star-faced-backlash-for-wearing-confederate-flag-shirt-his-label-apologized.html

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He's a K-pop star, but he was BORN and RAISED in CANADA!
So, I'm not buying that he didn't know the Confederate flag was offensive to Black Americans (and right-minded non-Black Americans!).

And he's a rapper?!?!?!
Way to culturally appropriate and steal from those you demean!!

[Deuxcents]

1. What a bull💩 statement from the record company..and they think we're accepting it?

[Haggard Celine]

2. People wear symbols that

they don't know the meaning of all the time. While it would be unbelievable that someone around here wouldn't know the meaning of that symbol, I can see someone from western Canada, for instance, being ignorant about it. I just looked it up, and he was born in Toronto, but grew up in Vancouver. He moved to South Korea in 2012. I think he's probably not that aware of American history. He knows there was once slavery here, probably, but isn't that knowledgable about it otherwise. He grew up with different history classes from ours.

[Skittles]

4. yeah, like nazi tattoos

how can a person be expected to know everything

[Haggard Celine]

7. I was thinking about those tribal tattoos that used to be popular.

They get Japanese writing and other symbols on their bodies and don't know what they mean, or maybe they have a foggy idea of what it means. I just think this guy is young and he thought that the rebel flag looked cool, knowing nothing about its being offensive. Symbols are funny that way. I remember when I was a kid, my friends and I used to copy swastikas and other designs we saw. We were too young to know much about what a swastika stood for. These symbols have an effect on us that we don't really understand. Like corporate logos, they're a shortcut to the unconscious. They make an impression at first glance.

[Skittles]

8. excuse it all you want

I never did shit like that.

[Haggard Celine]

11. Oh, I'm not excusing it. It's stupid to get

at tattoo on your body without researching what it means. I'm just saying there's a lot of people making stupid decisions out there and most of them, I think, are not making these choices out of malice. They're just ignorant and they see something that they think looks cool, but that's all they know about it. These Asians who wear and display rebel flags aren't pro-slavery. It's still offensive, but it's not an intentional insult to people. There's Asian designs, like the swastika, originally, that an American might like to wear, but isn't appropriate. We all have a lot of learning to do.

[Skittles]

12. so they are either bigots or just fucking stupid

either way, NOT a ringing endorsement

[Haggard Celine]

13. They aren't thinking clearly, for sure.

I'm sure they're doing their best.

[Celerity]

3. Asia's disturbing embrace of "Nazi chic" is prompting a nonprofit to teach Holocaust history

It’s a dismaying yet recurring phenomenon that takes place in disparate Asian countries: young people, not known for sympathizing with far-right groups, playing with Nazi imagery in highly public settings.

https://qz.com/928440/asias-disturbing-embrace-of-nazi-chic-is-prompting-a-nonprofit-to-teach-holocaust-history



It’s a dismaying yet recurring phenomenon that takes place in disparate Asian countries: young people, not known for sympathizing with far-right groups, playing with Nazi imagery in highly public settings.





Examples abound. Last December a school in Taiwan staged a Hitler-themed parade for its anniversary celebration, leading to the principal’s resignation. A few weeks earlier, Sony Music apologized after one of its girl bands performed in Nazi-looking outfits. Two years before that a girl group in South Korea showed up in similar fashion. Thailand, India, and Indonesia have had their share of Nazi-themed bars, parades, and performances. The list is long and repetitive—and disconcerting.





It isn’t just the region’s youngsters who fail to appreciate the Holocaust’s gravity. In Hong Kong last month, after a court verdict condemned seven policemen to jail terms for beating a pro-democracy protester in 2014, their colleagues staged a demonstration during which one of them said that they were being “persecuted like the Jews in Germany,” to other demonstrators’ cheers. The German and Israeli diplomatic missions condemned the comparison, and a half-hearted apology ensued.



A mission to educate

For the past six years, the Hong Kong Holocaust and Tolerance Centre, the only organization of its kind in Asia, has used education to counter the recurring use of “Nazi chic.” “The optimist in me wants to think that this happens just out of ignorance, and that the comparison with something more familiar helps,” says co-founder April Kaminsky. With that in mind the center also teaches about regional tragedies like the Nanjing Massacre in China during World War II and the “killing fields” in Cambodia under the rule of Pol Pot. “That makes the topic quite relevant to the region.”

snip

[yardwork]

14. Thank you for posting this.

[sarisataka]

5. This should be interesting

How far will the benefit of the doubt extend...

[Skittles]

9. I think nazi tattoo set the bar

ANYTHING can be excused.

[LeftInTX]

6. I've seen confederate flag guitars in Bollywood movies.

The guitars are a prop and not real instruments, because the musicians are not part of the movies, it's lip synced. They were trying to convey an image.

[Skittles]

10. images of what?

racist pieces of shit?

[LeftInTX]

15. Yep!

[Johnny2X2X]

16. Yeah, these stars do not dress themselves

They have stylists dressing them if they so much as leave the house to get a cup of coffee.