“While many of you know BTS as a Grammy-nominated international icon, they also play an important role as youth ambassadors in promoting a message of respect and positivity,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean- Pierre.
Each member of the boy band spoke on the podium, mostly in Korean, after Jean-Pierre’s presentation. RM, the leader of the group and the only member of the English-speaking band, began by thanking Jean-Pierre for his “kind words” and introduced the group.
“Hello, we are BTS and it is a great honor to be invited today to the White House to discuss the important issues of anti-Asian hate crimes, Asian inclusion and diversity,” he said.
The rest of the group, speaking through an interpreter, said they “joined the White House to be with” the AAPI community “and to celebrate.”
“We are devastated by the recent rise in hate crimes, including Asian-American hate crimes. To end this and support the cause, we would like to take this opportunity to express ourselves once again.” explained the translator. “Today we are here thanks to our army, our fans around the world, who have different nationalities and cultures and use different languages.”
The group was still “surprised that the music created by South Korean artists reaches so many people around the world transcending languages and cultural barriers,” members said. “We believe that music is always an amazing and wonderful unifier of all things.”
The group will also film “digital content” for White House social media channels, according to a White House official.
Her meeting with Biden in the Oval Office will be closed to reporters.
The group’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 new president Yoon Suk Yeol.
The group has had international success with songs such as “Butter” and “Dynamite” and their fans, who call themselves “Army”, are all over the world.
Last year, amid a series of anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States, including shootings at three spas in the Atlanta area, BTS spoke of its own experience with discrimination.
“We remember times when we faced discrimination as Asians. We endured insults for no reason and they made fun of us for our way of seeing. They even asked us why Asians spoke English,” the band said. in a retweeted statement more than a million times.
They continued: “We cannot express in words the pain of becoming the object of hatred and violence for this reason.”
The rise in anti-Asian crime and hostility towards Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) comes amid the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 10,000 hate incidents against AAPI people were reported to the Stop AAPI Hate advocacy organization between March 19, 2020 and December 31, 2021.
Biden, the White House said in a press release announcing the meeting, “has previously spoken of its commitment to combat the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes.” He signed a bipartisan bill aimed at addressing the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in law in May 2021. It will create a new position in the Justice Department to speed up the review of possible crimes of hatred and Covid-19-related incidents reported to federal authority. , at the state or local level.
Biden and BTS, the White House added, “will also discuss the importance of diversity and inclusion and the BTS platform as youth ambassadors spreading a message of hope and positivity around the world.”