BTS Army slams Topps for bruised cartoon of K-Pop group amid #StopAsianHate campaign

Topps felt the wrath of the BTS Army after it announced on Tuesday that it will release a "Shammy Awards" sticker collection that features the K-Pop superstars bandaged and bruised.

The "Bopping K-pop" is part of the collectible company's 2021 Grammy Shammy Awards-themed Garbage Pail Kids (GPK) card collection. It features caricatures of the members of the group in a game of Whac-A-Mole.

Shortly after the announcement, BTS Army took offense with the "racist" depiction of the singers in the wake of the mass shootings at three spas and massage parlours in Georgia. Topps made the announcement on the day of the massacre where eight died, six of whom were Asian Americans.

The backlash prompted the company to immediately remove the BTS sticker cards from its GPK Shammy Awards collection. Topps also released a statement on Wednesday addressing the fans' concerns.

"We hear and understand our consumers who are upset about the portrayal of BTS in our GPK Shammy Awards product and we apologise for including it," the company wrote on Twitter. "We have removed the BTS sticker card from the set, we have not printed any of the sticker card and it will not be available."

However, BTS Army was not satisfied with Topp's apology as they feel that the company failed to address the racist nature of their product.

Twitter page BTS Press wrote, "'I'm sorry you got upset' is not an apology @Topps. Take real responsibility. Acknowledge the insensitivity & implicit racism in your portrayal of BTS. The lack of accountability & deflection of blame only invalidates the feelings of those hurt & contribute to hate against Asians."

Meanwhile, another claimed Topps is "enabling hate" against the Asian community at a time when it is happening in the country.

"Why was it upsetting? Clarify that to the public, then make a proper apology to the Asian community. You depicted an Asian public figures [sic] as badly bruised and beaten down fully knowing the growing hate against Asian is happening in your country."

"You missed to acknowledge the part why people are upset?????? This is not an apology. Apologize properly to BTS and Asian Community," another tweeted.

Topps has yet to respond to the request for an apology from the BTS Army. Meanwhile, news about the shootings rallied stars who took to social media to condemn the hate against the Asian community through the hashtag #StopAsianHate. Among those who spoke up included Olivia Munn, Lebron James, Daniel Dae Kim, Mindy Kaling, George Takei, Patricia Arquette, and Dwayne Wade, to name a few.