After a two-year rise in U.S. crimes against Asian victims, President Joe Biden welcomes some “dynamite” visitors to the White House to discuss ways to stop this targeted violence.
On Tuesday, Biden hosts K-pop BTS superstars: Bangtan Sonyeondan or “Beyond the Scene.” The meeting with the music group that popularized the K-pop genre in the United States will be part of an effort to discuss “Asian inclusion and representation and address anti-Asian hate crimes and discrimination,” he said. the White House in a statement.
“We thank President Biden and the White House for giving us this important opportunity to talk about these important causes and to remind us what we can do as artists,” said one of the band members as he spoke at the Tuesday’s press conference with the new White House press secretary. Karine Jean-Pierre. BTS attended the briefing and then met with Biden on Tuesday afternoon.
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In 2021, a gunman shot and killed eight people at various massage parlors in the Atlanta area, six of whom were women of Asian descent. Following this crime, BTS tweeted “StopAsianHate #StopAAPIHate”. This tweet was the most retweeted tweet of 2021, according to Twitter
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Anti-Asian crimes and other incidents of prejudice have increased in the US during the pandemic. The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, cited a 339% increase in this targeted harassment between 2020 and 2021, according to an NBC report.
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The BTS meeting with Biden comes a week after the president returned to the United States from his trip to Asia.