Suey Park
{{short description|Korean American social justice internet activist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Suey Park
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = 1990
| birth_place = Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
| alma_mater = University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
| occupation = Former Internet activist, writer
| known_for = The #CancelColbert campaign
}}
Suey Park is a pseudonym used by a Korean American social justice internet activist (born in 1990) most known for creating the 2014 Twitter hashtag campaign #CancelColbert, which has been called "one of the ur-examples of cancel culture" by columnist Ross Douthat.{{cite news |last1=Douthat |first1=Ross |title=Ross Douthat column: 10 theses about cancel culture |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/featured/sns-nyt-op-cancel-culture-20200714-bcww7hqo2nhxbile6inppmzali-story.html |work=baltimoresun.com |date=July 14, 2020}} Other Twitter campaigns she has initiated that became trending on Twitter and received widespread media coverage include #NotYourAsianSidekick in 2013 and #NotMyChristianLeader in 2014.{{cite news |last1=McDonald |first1=Soraya Nadia |title=With #NotMyChristianLeader, Suey Park takes on organized religion |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/06/with-notmychristianleader-suey-park-takes-on-organized-religion/ |access-date=14 September 2021 |work=Washington Post |date=August 6, 2014}}{{cite news |last1=Capachi |first1= Casey |title=Suey Park: Asian American women are #NotYourAsianSidekick |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/12/17/suey-park-asian-american-women-are-notyourasiansidekick/ |access-date=14 September 2021 |work=Washington Post|date=December 17, 2013}}{{cite news |title=#BBCtrending: #NotYourAsianSidekick goes global |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-25399314 |work=BBC News |date=16 December 2013}}{{cite news |last1=Kim |first1=Yoonj |title=#NotYourAsianSidekick is a civil rights movement for Asian American women {{!}} Yoonj Kim |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/17/not-your-asian-sidekick-asian-women-feminism |access-date=14 September 2021 |work=the Guardian |date=17 December 2013 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=Ng |first1=Christina |title=#NotYourAsianSidekick Becomes Top Twitter Trend |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/notyourasiansidekick-top-twitter-trend/story?id=21233025 |work=ABC News |date=17 December 2013 |language=en}} In 2014, The Guardian named her one of the "top 30 young people in digital media".{{cite news |last1=Hern |first1=Alex |last2=Andrews |first2=Matt |last3=Shepherd |first3=Jack |title=The top 30 young people in digital media: Nos 30-11 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/mar/16/top-30-young-people-digital-media-nos-30-11 |access-date=14 September 2021 |work=the Guardian |date=16 March 2014 |language=en}}
Early life
Park was born in Detroit. Her parents emigrated there from South Korea in the late 1980s after her father was accepted into an MBA program at Wayne State University. The family moved to Chicago when Park was five years old. Park's parents were conservative, and she was as well until her second year of studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
''#CancelColbert''
Park initiated this campaign in an attempt to "cancel" Stephen Colbert and/or his show The Colbert Report over a tweet satirizing the foundation of the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation.{{cite news |title=The Campaign to "Cancel" Colbert |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-campaign-to-cancel-colbert |access-date=14 September 2021 |work=The New Yorker |date=30 March 2014}} The offending tweet from the Colbert show's Twitter account, posted on March 27, 2014, read: "I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever." Though intended as satire, Park thought the joke went too far.{{cite news |last1=Watercutter |first1=Angela |title=Here's What Happened to the Woman Who Started #CancelColbert |url=https://www.wired.com/2016/02/cancelcolbert-what-happened/ |access-date=14 September 2021 |work=Wired}} While Park's hashtag became trending on Twitter and widely covered in US media, it was ultimately unsuccessful in that neither Colbert nor the show ended up cancelled, though the show's Twitter account was deleted by Colbert, live on an episode of the show, and Colbert issued a semi-apology, saying "I never want this to happen again."{{cite news |last1=Dowd |first1=Kathy |title=Stephen Colbert Destroys His Show's Twitter Account After Controversy |url=http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20802223,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407081126/http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20802223,00.html |archive-date=April 7, 2014}} Park's outspokenness and role in launching the campaign led to her receiving multiple rape and death threats, leading Park to shave her head and move from Chicago to New York City.{{cite news |last1=Bruenig |first1=Elizabeth |title=Why Won't Twitter Forgive Suey Park? |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/121861/suey-parkof-cancelcolbert-fame-has-stopped-fighting-twitter |access-date=14 September 2021 |work=The New Republic |date=21 May 2015}} Park also reported being "stalked and hunted" for months afterwards. Her story was featured in the pilot episode of the reality television series The Internet Ruined My Life which aired on Syfy in 2016.{{cite web |title=Review: Syfy’s ‘The Internet Ruined My Life’ misses the mark, treating all its subjects as victims |url=https://www.geekwire.com/2016/the-internet-ruined-my-life-misses-the-mark-treating-all-subjects-as-victims/ |website=GeekWire |date=9 March 2016}}{{cite news |last1=O'Brien |first1=Sara Ashley |title=How one hashtag can ruin your life |url=https://money.cnn.com/2016/03/08/media/the-internet-ruined-my-life-syfy/index.html |access-date=14 September 2021 |work=CNNMoney |date=8 March 2016}}