This June, BTS and their label Big Hit Entertainment announced that they donated $1 million (roughly P48.34 million) to the Black Lives Matter movement in the US.
The movement protests the string of police brutality and racially-motivated violence against Black people in the US.
์ฐ๋ฆฌ๋ ์ธ์ข ์ฐจ๋ณ์ ๋ฐ๋ํฉ๋๋ค.
์ฐ๋ฆฌ๋ ํญ๋ ฅ์ ๋ฐ๋ํฉ๋๋ค.
๋, ๋น์ , ์ฐ๋ฆฌ ๋ชจ๋๋ ์กด์ค๋ฐ์ ๊ถ๋ฆฌ๊ฐ ์์ต๋๋ค. ํจ๊ป ํ๊ฒ ์ต๋๋ค.We stand against racial discrimination.
We condemn violence.
You, I and we all have the right to be respected. We will stand together.#BlackLivesMatterโ ๋ฐฉํ์๋ ๋จ (@BTS_twt) June 4, 2020
In a statement, the Korean boy group said, “We stand against racial discrimination. We condemn violence. You, I and we all have the right to be respected. We will stand together. #BlackLives Matter.”
The donation inspired ARMY, the group’s fan base, to match that donation within 24 hours.
In an interview with Variety, BTS further explained the story behind their donation.
According to member Jin, “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.”
His co-member RM added, “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.”
They clarified that they weren’t trying to send a message and that it was just a donation.
Suga said, “Ours are initiatives that any person who wishes to live in a just world would want to pursue. We aren’t trying to send out some grandiose message…It’s about us being against racism and violence. Most people would be against these things.”
This weekend, BTS will be holding Map of the Soul ON:E, an offline and online concert. It will be held on October 10 and 11.
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