Korean webtoon gets canceled over ‘racist’ chapter
Naver Webtoon The Korean webtoon Get Schooled is no more as recent controversy over its “racist” content in its latest chapter sparks outrage.
Get Schooled was an ongoing webtoon about a lead character named Hwajin Na, who is an employee of the Ministry of Education. His tactics of education were seen as a bit violent and took care of bullies in an unconventional way.
A recent new chapter sparked heated debates as it took on a racist undertone as a character hurled racial slurs at an African-American student during a heated argument.
While webtoons have become a hot commodity due to popular K-drama adaptations, there was no room for public racism of that magnitude. The backlash has led Naver Webtoon to take immediate action against Get Schooled.
Get Schooled webtoon has been suspended in America
One of Korea’s globally famous webtoon and manhwa platforms, Naver Webtoon, took action against Get Schooled and removed the storyline until further notice.
Many may notice that Googling Get Schooled on the website results in an error notice. It says the series is currently unavailable. According to The Korea Herald, Naver Webtoon commented on social media, “The racist content has been removed from our platform. The series has been canceled and will not be returning in the US. It has also been suspended indefinitely from the Korean platform, while we conduct an internal review.”
“It should never have been published and we deeply apologize to anyone who encountered it. Racism or racist content have no place on WEBTOON,” they said.
In Episode 125, the narrator, who sees himself as the only pure Korean, is being bullied by multiracial students. With the arrival of a new teacher, who is half Korean and American, the multiracial student also attacks him with a racist term. In return, the teacher answers back with a well-known racial slur.
According to The Korea Herald, the chapter was originally published in Korean. But it was not meant to be published to American audiences until two months later. However, an unauthorized translation of the chapter was shared on social media.
On X (Twitter), a fan shared screenshots of the chapter, commenting, “TW: Racism Erm… Get Schooled – Chap 125 is WILD?! Like I need to know what the author is thinking and how he is gonna finish this … because I am not impressed so far.” Be warned the language used can be upsetting.
You can read more K-drama news in our hub here, details about how to read Moving webtoon here, and Korean actors who gained fame from webtoons here.