The Grammy-nominated gang’s visit comes days after Biden returned from his first trip to Asia as president, which included a three-day stop in Seoul and meetings with South Korean President-elect Yun Suk Yel.
The band has achieved international success with songs such as “Butter” and “Dynamite”, and their fans, who call themselves “Army”, are spreading around the world.
Last year, amid a series of anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States, including shootings at three spas in the Atlanta region, BTS reported on its own experience of discrimination.
“We remember moments when we faced discrimination as Asians. We endured swearing for no reason and were ridiculed for the way we looked. We were even asked why Asians speak English, “the group said in a statement, retouched more than 1 million times.
They continued, “We cannot put into words the pain of being the object of hatred and violence for that reason.”
The rise in anti-Asian crime and hostility to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) comes amid the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 10,000 incidents of hatred against AAPI individuals were reported to the Stop AAPI Hate advocacy organization between March 19, 2020 and December 31, 2021. Biden, the White House said in a statement Thursday, “has previously spoken out about its commitment to fight the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes. ” He signed a bipartisan bill aimed at allowing the rise of hate crimes against Asian countries into law in May 2021. He will create a new position in the Ministry of Justice to speed up the review of potential hate crimes related to Covid-19, and incidents reported at the federal, state, or local levels.
Biden and the BTS, the White House added, “will also discuss the importance of diversity and inclusion and the BTS platform as youth ambassadors who spread a message of hope and positivity around the world.”
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