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Mark Ruffalo and Jean Smart wear pins reading “Be Good” at the 2026 Golden Globes ceremony, held in Beverly Hills, California, on Jan. 11, 2026. (AP/Yonhap)

By Hahn Chae-yoon, activist with the Korean Sexual-Minority Culture and Rights Center

This year’s Golden Globes awards ceremony was held in Los Angeles earlier this week. While “KPop Demon Hunters” taking home two trophies made headlines in Korea, there are a few other things worth noting about the event. 

Mark Ruffalo of Hulk fame and Jean Smart, who won a Golden Globe for her role in the comedy show “Hacks,” and other celebrities could be seen at the awards ceremony donning a white pin with the words “BE GOOD” written in black letters. 

A few Korean outlets translated the phrase into something like, “Be a good person.” That’s not wrong, but it’s not exactly right either. At the same ceremony, pop star Ariana Grande wore a pin that read “ICE OUT.”

The “GOOD” on Ruffalo’s pin commemorated Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed by an ICE — short for Immigration and Customs Enforcement — agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 7. It was also a rallying cry to defy US President Donald Trump’s authoritarian reign and his unjust mobilization of force against the public. 

Renee Nicole Good was a US citizen, a lesbian in a same-sex marriage, and was on her way home after dropping off her son at school when she encountered an ICE crackdown. When she stopped on the road to block ICE vehicles, she was approached by ICE agents in black masks. After a brief exchange, she tried to drive off, only to have an agent fire three shots into her vehicle. Shockingly, ICE agents did nothing to try to save her life as she bled out.  

A doctor who happened to be at the scene tried to help, but the agents prevented him from even approaching her car. No sooner had Good died than Trump, in the middle of an interview with the press, claimed that the agent had acted in self-defense. At that point, only a few blurry videos taken by witnesses were circulating.  

If that weren’t enough, Vice President JD Vance ridiculed Good, calling her a “deranged leftist” and suggesting that she was a terrorist without any evidence. 

Then new footage came out that showed Good in the moments before her death. “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you,” Good said with a smile on her face. The footage was taken by Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed her. 

In other words, Ross was filming with his mobile device with one hand while holding a gun in the other. Is that how you take on a malicious terrorist? Just so we are clear, what happened is that a federal agent, rather than fire a warning shot, fired straight into the face of an unarmed civilian. 

This was not an excessive use of force in self-defense. This was closer to punishment based on disdain. In his own footage, Ross can be heard calling Good a “bitch” after he shot her.  

Good’s wife, Becca, was also on the scene. Instead of apologizing to Good’s widow, Trump referred to Becca as the victim’s “friend” — a deliberate choice of words aiming to discount Good’s same-sex marriage. 

The US Justice Department decided not to indict Ross, the agent who shot Good. Rather, there has reportedly been a push to investigate Becca for possible ties to anti-ICE groups.  

Four prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division resigned in protest of this unjust decision. Within the US, protests in memory of Good and resisting the Trump administration are spreading. 

This is what it comes down to. Being good does not mean obeying those with power. It means being kind and friendly to each other, irrespective of skin color, country of origin, or sexual orientation. It also means that we need to resist and fight until the very end to defend these values. 

I hope that the rallying cry to “be good” can be the guiding force for defending American democracy. I will never forget the words of Becca Good in a statement issued from the depths of her grief at having lost her wife: “We must work together to build a world where we all come home safe to the people we love.” 

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]