BTS have candidly shared they have been subjected to prejudice during their travels around the world – which is part of the reason they, along with their agency Big Hit, donated $1million (£770,000) to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement this year.
The donation was made as the band’s fans, called Army, rallied together in the wake of the death of unarmed black man George Floyd – which was the catalyst behind massive Black Lives Matter demonstrations around the globe.
Army was credited with takeovers of racist hashtags, crashing a Dallas police app and even disrupting President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa by artificially inflating the headcount through bogus sign-ups.
And when BTS – made up of RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, V, Jungkook and Jimin – donated the hefty sum to the BLM cause, Army rushed to match the figure within 24 hours.
Speaking to Variety now about the group’s donation, Jin explained: ‘When we’re abroad or in other situations, we’ve also been subjected to prejudice. We feel that prejudice should not be tolerated; it really has no place.
‘We started to discuss what we could do to help, whether it was a donation or something else. That’s where the conversation began — just trying to see what we could do to try to alleviate this prejudice.’
Group leader RM said they were well aware of the power of Army and the waves they had caused in raising awareness for the important movement.
He said: ‘We were aware of the fans, the hashtags and their participation. It was a decision we thought about very carefully: what could we do, as part of our overall message of speaking out against prejudice and violence?
‘We discussed it very carefully with the company and that’s how this came about.’
However, even though they managed to contribute a massive amount to the cause (as well as donating the same figure to help with live entertainment personnel affected amid the pandemic), the band has denied they are explicitly ‘political figures’.
In the same interview Suga said: ‘I don’t consider ourselves as political. We aren’t trying to send out some grandiose message.
‘We would see Army as a conduit for our voice or our opinion. Army speaks their own initiatives, and we always respect their opinions, as we respect any other person’s.’
That’s not to say the group is against becoming more political in the future, with RM adding ‘everything is political’.
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