Don Malik denied entrance into US for SXSW, says he was called racial slurs

Korean rapper Don Malik was set to perform at SXSW 2017 on March 17, but that had to be cancelled as he and his staff were denied entry into the US. Jerry.K, the CEO of Daze Alive (Don Malik’s label), explained the situation.

Here's the English translation of Jerry.K's recent post about Don Malik's denial of entry into the United States: • Hello, this is daze alive. . We have unfortune news for you by which we were taken aback. . Don Malik who was invited to the world-wide festival #SXSW in Austin, Texas, was treated wrongfully and denied entry to the US, thus his showcase on March 17 at 9PM local time at the Karma Lounge was cancelled. . On March 12, #DonMalik departed from Incheon Airport together with staff members of his agency #StoneShip and fellow artists. At their stopover in San Francisco International Airport they were controlled by customs, denied entry and sent back to Incheon. . Don Malik and Co. were entering as guests, with a non-profit purpose, abiding by the Visa Waiver Program and they were cleared by the ESTA. His participation in SXSW was going to be unpaid and they had all relevant documents at hand, also proof for their ESTA clearance and travel visas. . Yet they were denied entry and then detained for 24 hours. They were racially discriminated by local employees who imitated monkeys and called them “chink(s).” Further, the whole group’s cellphones were confiscated, thus they were unable to ask for help from [SXSW] staff. In this process, one of the fellow artists was even handcuffed for no reason. Due to this denied entry, the whole group’s ESTA clearance is apparently cancelled for good. . According to magazines like Pitchfork and Spin, at least more than seven teams were denied entry just the same. Among them, one team had the same visas [as Don Malik & Co.] and had even participated twice in SXSW before. We feel deeply sorry that the artists were denied entry, treated unfairly and discriminated racially. We hope that one day the fans who were looking forward to Don Malik’s showcase can see him perform under better circumstances. . March 15, 2017
daze alive CEO JERRY.K

A post shared by Andrew | HiphopKR (@hiphopkr) on Mar 15, 2017 at 10:10am PDT

The articles by Pitchfork and SPIN showed that Don Malik was hardly alone in his plight. But aside from not being let into the country, the most shocking detail is the accusation that employees taunted Don Malik and crew with monkey imitations and racial slurs.

Sooo … that happened, I guess.

As an American, it’s honestly humiliating to see shit like this.