In light of the recent controversy that is absolutely blowing up over Twitter and Instagram, I've decided to weigh in and give my two cents on the whole situation:

For those of you who are unaware of what happened I'll give a brief description about it too.

1. BamBam. He was recorded in a SnapChat video posted by one of Mark's friends saying the n-word. You can clearly hear him say "Mah nigga!" in the video after asking Mark's guy friends what the word means. They tell him "it's like bro." So first of all, since this happened BamBam has been sent a large amount of hate. He's been asked to leave the group by a lot of netizens, as well as sent death threats and things like that. I don't agree that what he did is inexcusable, it was clearly offensive to a lot of his African-American fans and a lot of international fans who are aware of what the word actually means. As for BamBam though, I don't think he deserve the catastrophic backlash he is receiving. He's a young man and most likely doesn't know any better (I haaaate when people defend idols using this excuse because it's honestly a cop out most of the time) but in this case I actually think BamBam was a little clueless to the weight that his words had. He is heard asking what it means first before using it, after being given the O.K from Mark's Cali friends - they clearly use the word a lot in a very non-chalant way, so that tells you the kind of people they are. BamBam says it in what he thinks is a private event (thanks again Mark's friends) and this is the result. I am totally with BamBam, I feel for him and hope that this doesn't affect him too badly. I think an apology via Twitter/Insta is more than enough, I don't think GOT7 needs to make an offical apology on his behalf. It wasn't that big of a deal to me, imo.  It is worth noting, though, that BamBam is a rapper. And he's listed his many musical influences in the past like Kendrick Lamar, ASAP Rocky, etc. These are two artists who use the n-word quite a bit. Also, BamBam has recently been obssessed with dabbing, a dance originating from black culture. His clothing, his musical interests, fashion, everything all draws heavily from black American culture. And BamBam himself speaks a small and decent amount of English, so in saying that, I'm wondering just how unaware he actually was about the word. There's no way he hadn't heard it before, that's for sure.

2. Mark's tattoo. I guess Mark got a cross tattooed onto his calf. It's pretty clear that it's a tattoo in all of the pictures. He must've gotten it in America while they were there. Honestly I hate that this is even a ~controversy~ because it's so minor and not even a bad thing. I undetstand that it's illegal in Korea to get tattoos, etc. But with the growing amount of tattoo shops in Korea, and the amount of idols who already do have tattoos, I don't see a problem WHATSOEVER with Mark getting a tattoo in America, where he is of legal age to do so. I really, really hope that when Mark returns to Korea he isn't given a lot of heck for it. He is precious and doesn't deserve that. I assume they will cover the tattoo in broadcasts and such like they do with other idols, but I'm hoping that that is the extent of their "dealing" with that. He didn't do anything wrong at all in my eyes.

3. Yugyeom being drunk. So in the string of videos posted to Snapchat by Mark's friend Wendy, one of them shows a very obviously drunk Yugyeom. I mean, if you've had a drink before or been drunk in your life you can tell right off the bat that Yugyeom is absolutely trashed in the video. His eyes are like glazed back in his head and he's very out of it. This makes me giggle a little and doesn't get me upset or anything. He's 19! He's allowed to legally drink in Korea. He's at a private event that is held for his group where it's not supposed to be made public, where he is allowed to cut loose etc. Both of Mark's parents were at the party, and in California it is legal for him to drink as long as it's at a private function and there's supervisors around that are sober, which there were. So I really don't get all of the hate towards Yugyeom. I got drunk for the first time when I was like 16. In North America it's not a big deal at all for someone his age to be having fun. It's not like the boy is an alcoholic and will be messing up future performances because he's drunk. People are making too big a deal out of that one. - - - Also there was a lot of hate on Yugyeom because in the video he's sitting down and leaned forward and is shirtless, and he's got a little bit of a stomach, just like everyone gets when they sit down, and people online are basically ripping this nineteen year old boy down for not having rock hard abs of steel. I can't imagine the self-consciousness that Yugyeom is feeling right now. Poor kid is probably devastated that he's being labelled as an irresponsible, fat drunk by a lot of so called "fans." Body shaming in any form is completely inappropriate especially against a person like Yugyeom who is healthy and completely a sweetheart. That pissed me off.

4. Mark's friends. So apparently Mark's friends from LA were acting really inappropriate at the concert, and then at the pool party they were all Snapchatting the events and made their Snapchat stories public for everyone to see. GOT7 fans are attacking Mark right now if you go and check his Instagram out. They are basically telling Mark that he needs to get new friends and that his friends are basically ruining or sabatoging GOT7 because of the BamBam/Yugyeom thing as well as exposing Mark's tattoo and then also recording it all and making it public knowing that Mark is a celebrity and is in the public eye a lot. I am torn on this issue because on the one hand I can see why the friends Snapchatted everything, in North America it's not a weird thing to go to a party (especially with someone you haven't seen in a very long time) and want videos and pictures of the party to remember for later. I would probably be guilty of that too, just because it seems very harmless at the time - not to mention none of the members were opposed to being in videos or pictures and even posed and danced around in the videos. I do however, think that they should've behaved a lot better. They know GOT7 is a popular group with a large international following. They should have taken this into account and saved the pictures and videos for their own personal eyes and not anyone elses'. I do think that is not okay. They also told BamBam what he was saying was fine and akin to "bro," which obviously was wrong. So yeah, they should've acted a little better. (I can't be completely upset at them because they gave me shirtless Mark - ugh did you see his chest? Mark is so hot. And don't even get me started on Jackson. There's a Snap of him giving a kissy face and he's like barefaced and has a little bit of stubble and he's just giving me rugged daddy vibes and asfdsfbsd. If you know me you know I love me some daddy wang.)

All in all, I think it's unforunate that GOT7s American leg ended on such a sour note. I hope this doesn't have too big an impact on the popularity or the image of GOT7 once they're back in Korea and that it eventually blows over. I just hope BamBam addresses this sooner rather than later because time is ticking and it will only get worse the longer he leaves it up in the air. That's my two cents.

EDIT***

Also apparently Mark's friends were incredibly drunk at the concert and were like lifting their shirts up and being loud and messy and obnoxious and proceeded to throw water and glowsticks at other fans. That's so embarrassing for Mark, ugh. Cringe.