Trigger warning for brief mentions of sexual assault and of course some idol controversies.

One thing I see people say very often when western-raised idols participate in CA, make homophobic/sexist/colorist/etc. comments, or exhibit other problematic behavior is that because they lived in a western country (mostly the US, Canada, and Australia, since there aren't many European idols that I know of) they should know better. But honestly, as an American, that has never really made sense to me.

I'm going to use Jaehyun (NCT), Wendy (Red Velvet), and Bang Chan (Stray Kids) as examples since I think they're brought up most commonly. A quick rundown on these idols and their individual controversies (so, not controversies involving their groups): Jaehyun lived in the US when he was young and mouthed/said the n-word while singing along to a song on a 2017 NCT Night Night livestream. Wendy spent her teenage years in the US and Canada and impersonated Black women on a 2018 episode of Talk Mon (and one other time I think). Bang Chan grew up in Australia and said the word "ninjas" in place of the n-word in a 3racha song (edit: here is a recent post that explains the situation very well!), and he wore braids in 2019. All of these situations offended certain demographics and I am not in ANY way trying to excuse the idols for them, especially because I am not part of the offended demographics and cannot speak for them. However, I don’t think it’s fair to say that these idols should’ve known better just because they lived in western countries, for a few reasons.

1. No matter where these idols lived or for how long, they were still raised by Korean parents. Speaking from personal experience, in a foreign environment, you tend to stick very closely to what you're familiar with, which for these idols would've been their parents and thus Korean culture. Obviously I don't know exactly how these idols were raised, but I think it's safe to assume that Korean ideals and morals were a big part of their upbringing. Even Bang Chan, who I'm pretty sure said considers himself more Australian than Korean, most likely did not have a purely Australian childhood (whatever that means).
2. These idols moved to Korea at a young age, and have now lived there for years. From what I can tell, of the three idols mentioned above, Bang Chan spent the most time in a western country, but he has now lived in Korea for the past ten years. Meanwhile, Jaehyun lived in the US for just four years when he was a child. And as we all know, Korea is a very socially conservative country. (For example, on this website South Korea is the 12th most racist country in the world, and it is the highest-ranked developed country on the list.)
3. Following that, many of these idols missed the beginnings of socially conscious culture in their respective countries. Though social justice and equality have obviously been important issues for a very long time, they really only became "trendy" (i.e. white people started caring about them) in western countries relatively recently, and they certainly have not gained the same amount of traction in non-western countries like Korea. The three idols I've mentioned all moved to Korea to be trainees before the BLM movement, the #MeToo movement, etc. really took off, so they have not been in the same social justice-minded environment that the people living in the US, Canada, and Australia for the past several years have been.
4. Finally, overall, western countries are not exactly socially conscious themselves. Look at the past two American elections to get an idea of what I mean. In the 2016 presidential election, almost 63 million Americans voted for Donald Trump, who has faced multiple accusations of sexual assault and was endorsed by neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and over 74 million Americans voted for him in 2020. Yes, his opponent received more votes in both elections, but the number of people who support him is still huge. Think of it this way: South Korea's population in 2018 was 51.64 million people, so more Americans voted for a sexual abuser and white supremacist - twice - than live in all of South Korea. Obviously, the social justice situation in Korea is really not comparable to those in western countries, but what I'm trying to say is that discrimination based on race, color, gender, sexuality, ability, etc. is still rampant in western countries, so it's naïve to think living in a western country = social awareness.

I am not excusing western-raised idols' ignorance or problematic behavior. All I am saying is that, while there are many reasons to be upset when an idol does something problematic, the "they should've known better" argument against western-raised idols is misguided and unrealistic.

Edit: u/lulianSQ has pointed out to me that the term “woke” is meant to be specific to the Black community, so I have edited my post to instead say “social consciousness” or “social awareness.”

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