I’ve had my crying moments but at this moment I’m happy, I’m good.”. To me there’s nothing more important than protecting people. No. The Philip Guston controversy is turning artists against the National Galle... Credit scores are supposed to be race-neutral. https://face2faceafrica.com/article/meet-the-first-black-k-pop-idol-alexandra-reid American viewers made up around 13 percent of the 33 million YouTube subscribers of BTS. But while their online petitions made headlines, the popular girl group’s single still debuted at No. Change ). Weight: N/A, Sharon (샤롱) Birthplace: N/A

Real Name: Wang Hui Zi Height: 170 cm As a result, the genre’s few Black artists have also grown more vocal. Height: 166cm “For me, there’s nothing good to say about Donald Trump, that’s the problem,” she said. K-pop’s past is rife with cases of stars wearing cornrows and braids as well as blackface. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. DR Music (left: Aug 20, 2017) Height. “My hair is straight because no one can do my hair.

Blood Type: A
Birthday: December 22, 1995 House work group votes to propose banning chokeholds, restricting no-kn... Texas players told to stand for school song, despite its origin in blackfac... A young man’s path out of Houston’s oldest housing project echoes George Fl... A shirtless New York Supreme Court judge shoved a police officer. “It would be smart to have a more diverse team within the company so they can point out what is wrong and what is right. Following the immigration ban, she declared her support of Muslims. After a recent Lunar New Year photo shoot featuring Rania wearing traditional Korean clothing, Reid alone faced major criticism for daring to wear the outfit; nobody questioned whether BP Rania’s Chinese member should be wearing Korean clothing. “There’s a thing out here where you’re just not [supposed to] get yourself in trouble,” Reid told Billboard over the phone from Seoul.

Blood Type: O Birthday: June 25, 2001 Birthplace: N/A It’s just with this schedule I can’t. So Gilpin petitioned SM Entertainment, one of the biggest labels in K-pop, to take a stand for Black Lives Matter online with the hashtag #SMBLACKOUT. Real Name: Hwang Se Mi This year, BTS was included in pop, which they won. Height: 172cm Birthday: March 5, 1994 Real Name: Fu Ying Nan (付英男) As big corporations say ‘black lives matter,’ their track records raise skepticism. Support our journalism. Alexandra Reid is a fomer BP RaNia member. Park of JYP Entertainment, sang with backup dancers in blackface. But it’s not always easy — especially when fellow fans aren’t supportive, said K-pop fan Eric Perry.Fellow K-pop fans would “make our problem seem invalid,” said Perry, a 23-year-old African American student at the University of Maryland who belongs to a K-pop dance crew. Height: N/A “Plus, it’s sensory overload — bright colors, high drama, intense dancing and pretty faces.”. Weight: 42kg, YiJo (이조) “We realized we had a lot of power in our fandom and a lot of energy that wanted to focus on doing good,” said Erika Overton, a 40-year-old Black American who does outreach and communications for BTS fan collective One In An Army, which coordinated a campaign to match the group’s donation. RaNia (formerly known as BP RaNia) is a girl group under Banana Culture. RaNia da esquerda para a direita: Yumin, Zi.U, Ttabo, Alex (ex-integrante), Yina (ex-integrante), Hyeme e Jieun.

Other artists who started in K-pop, like CL of 2NE1 and Jay Park of 2PM, also expressed their support for BLM. In a variety of tweets since Inauguration Day, Reid cheered on the Woman’s March and came out against Trump’s immigration ban and his anti-abortion executive order regarding the international gag rule.

Blood Type: B “When I speak Korean, ‘Oh, Alex has an accent. I was waking up two hours early during ‘Demonstrate’ to wash, dry, and style my hair. Height: 164 cm Blood Type: B “It’s personal to me because I want my kid to live in a world where people aren’t judged or discriminated against due to his skin color,” said Tiger JK, who grew up in Los Angeles and is considered one of the forefathers of Korean hip-hop and is married to a Korean-Black rapper. And in May, BTS member Suga provoked online backlash by sampling a speech by cult leader Jim Jones, who led more than 900 followers, including many Black women, in a mass suicide in 1978. Birthday: May 4, 1987 The next year, she said, that rule was dropped, so she tried again. “It feels like if you cared about the diversity, then I would hope that you would take a stand at this time,” she said.

Height: 166cm Because when you only have one perspective, it’s very difficult to be able to do things like that.”. As an African-American woman in Korea, she’s been held to a higher standard than the typical stringent lifestyle that K-pop stars abide by so as to maintain their place in the industry. Diverse, international fans who have been key to the genre’s success by pushing albums on social media are now harnessing their power in support of Black Lives Matter, staging online protests, hijacking hashtags like #WhiteLivesMatter, spamming a Dallas police app looking to identify protesters and even reserving rally seats in Tulsa meant for President Trump’s supporters. Blackpink fans chose to pay their respects to #BlackLivesMatter” instead of promoting “Sour Candy,” a collaboration with Lady Gaga that came out days after George Floyd’s death. A post shared by CL (@chaelincl) on Jun 4, 2020 at 2:35am PDT. That remains to be seen.”. But the challenge is to instigate real change, beyond statements and donations, in an industry that has been averse to politics. Position: Vocalist, Namfon (남폰) She made only limited live appearances.

Birthday: October 18, 1991 Because Black Lives Matter for K-pop has come to mean not only respecting the background of customers but also of their music.

Birthday: September 23, 1993 It leads to bans, boycotts and canceled careers.”. But ever since becoming a K-pop star, Reid has faced numerous difficulties: miscommunication and cultural differences have given her a hard time, while every move she makes is scrutinized by both the supporters and naysayers of furthering K-pop’s diversity. His rep later apologized, saying it was a “huge misunderstanding.”. That’s impossible. Real Name: Yoo Jooyi This American fan base has been instrumental in gaining mainstream acceptance for the genre. A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry, Ice Cube on Role in Developing Trump Campaign's 'Platinum Plan' for Black America | Billboard News, Billie Eilish Posts Racy Photo to Hit Back at Body-Shamers | Billboard News, Megan Thee Stallion Continues Teasing Fans About New Music: 'My Album About to Go Crazy', 30 Years of Billboard Latin Music Week: Watch Ozuna, Bad Bunny & More Before They Were Superstars, K-Pop Girl Group Rania Adds African-American Member, Luke Combs Performs ‘Better Together’ at 2020 Billboard Music Awards | Billboard News.

Blood Type: AB Height: 175cm She left BP RaNia in August 2017 and will no longer continue her music career in the K-Pop industry. ", How systemic racism shaped Floyd’s life and hobbled his ambition, George Floyd saw sports as his way out, but the Houston education system leaves many poor, Black students behind, ‘Hatred is taught’: Pennsylvania’s second lady films a woman’s racist attack at the grocery store, Reconstructing seven days of protests in Minneapolis after George Floyd’s death, Nearly 250 women have been fatally shot by police since 2015, Understanding racism and inequality in America.

All my hair fell out [during the] last comeback. Birthday: November 15, 1993 Real Name: Alexandra Reid Birthplace: N/A While judges were impressed she could sing in Korean, she never received a callback. He wasn’t... Sonequa Martin-Green stars in a future she hopes one day can be a reality. Citing Ivy, T-Ara, Baby Vox, BIGBANG and 2NE1 as her first K-pop loves, Reid is determined to pave her way in the genre as a history-making singer--even if she doesn’t always conform to the industry’s norms.
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Women’s health and the administration’s overall stance towards science has Reid concerned, considering her father’s a scientist and she’s an ardent lover of physics. With my hair on top of it… I was so worn down and exhausted during ‘Demonstrate’ that this time I just decided [that] I’m going to take some work off of myself and wear my hair straight. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Real Name: Kim Yumin (김유민) Birthday: N/A Reid joined the Korean girl group BP Rania (previously known as Rania) in 2015 and became the first-ever African-American K-pop girl group member. Birthplace: N/A

Philip YJ Yoon, executive director of DR Music Entertainment, acknowledged the challenges for Reid and other Black artists trying to break into K-pop and said he supported the Black Lives Matter movement. Alexandra Reid never felt like she belonged. ( Log Out /