"Ethnic people" is a keyword already too familiar to Vietnamese people - a country characterized by 54 ethnic groups. The word "ethnicity" often reminds us of colorful cultures, rich cuisine, costumes decorated with unique patterns and sometimes a distinct accent. Looking up this keyword online, we can find ample information revolving around the tasteful lives of ethnic minorities. "Ethnicity" is defined by tribe-like groups living in Vietnam (Viet, Tay, Khmer…), and like us all, they play a key role in the circular progress of nature and society, distinguished by three basic characteristics that have been sustained throughout history: language, culture and communal awareness.
But it really came as a surprise for us when we searched this keyword on another social media platform, Instagram. Instead of finding accounts related to ethnic minorities, a series of accounts with sensitive and vulgar content appeared. Most of these accounts have the name "The ‘Butt’ ethnic group" (butt is a word-play on “H'Mong”, an existing group of ethnic people). It is taboo to take the name of an ethnic group to evoke objectionable images, as it not only smears the honor of the H'Mong collective, but also that of Vietnamese citizens as well. Not stopping only at small accounts, the keyword "Butt ethnicity" on Instagram has also become a hashtag with more than 1000 posts. To make matters worse, almost all of them are revealing pictures of half-naked young females. Therefore, the question which needs to be asked is, why is a sacred, symbolic name for an entire community ruthlessly associated with such clothless images. This is a very small happenstance in our process of doing research for the Chiem project, but from a broader perspective, this seems to be a deeply pressing matter which needs to be thoroughly dealt with.
The aforesaid content needs to be censored; plus, there should also be strict penalties for individuals who use the names of ethnic minorities offensively.
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