Fans of K-pop megastars BTS raised and donated US$1 million to the Black Lives Matter movement, matching the septet’s donation of the same amount within 24 hours, organizers said yesterday.
The band’s managers, Big Hit Entertainment, said at the weekend that they and BTS — one of the biggest acts in the world — had jointly donated US$1 million to the ongoing movement against racism in the US and beyond, triggered by the death in police custody of an unarmed black man as an officer knelt on his neck.
“We stand against racial discrimination. We condemn violence,” BTS tweeted last week, which has since been retweeted about 1 million times.
Photo: Reuters
The Big Hit announcement soon sparked a #MatchAMillion hashtag trending worldwide on Twitter, with a set of BTS fans — One in an Army — setting up an online donation project for the cause.
One in an Army yesterday morning announced that it had raised just more than US$1 million from nearly 35,000 donors.
“Just like BTS, we were able to donate 1M dollars to help fund bailouts for those arrested for protesting police brutality,” and support black-led advocacy groups, among others, the group said on Twitter.
None of the fan group’s organizers are South Korean, the One in an Army Web site said, with most from Europe or North America.
The announcement follows a recent online effort by K-pop fans to take over the controversial #WhiteLivesMatter hashtag, often used by those who criticize protesters against racism, by posting the tag along with videos and images of their favorite singers.
BTS — or Bangtan Sonyeondan, which translates as Bulletproof Boy Scouts — are the first K-pop group to top charts in the US and the UK with a string of sold-out shows in Los Angeles, Paris and London’s Wembley Stadium.
“I am from London. My mom had to deal with racism all her life,” one black BTS fan wrote.
“I’m absolutely proud to tell her the group that... I adore supports us and stand with us,” the fan wrote.
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