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K-Pop Fans Show Organizing Prowess with Black Lives Matter Activism

William Gallo

   SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - Until last week, if you clicked the hashtag
   #whitelivesmatter on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, you'd find a
   smattering of right-wing posts by those opposed to the wave of global
   protests against racism and police brutality.

   But follow that hashtag now, and you're likely to find something much
   different: random, fan-created videos of South Korean pop music stars.

   Over the past week, K-Pop fans around the world have commandeered the
   #whitelivesmatter hashtag, as well as #alllivesmatter and
   #bluelivesmatter, as a way to drown out racist posts that have also
   used those labels.

   It's not just hashtags. When the Dallas, Texas police department set up
   a mobile app for users to submit videos of "illegal activity" from the
   protests, K-Pop fans quickly overwhelmed the site with tributes to
   their favorite stars, forcing the police department to take it down
   because of "technical difficulties."

   The online disruption, combined with the millions of dollars donated by
   K-Pop celebrities and their followers to Black Lives Matter causes,
   underscores how international fans of Korean music have emerged as a
   formidable organizing force for social causes around the world.

   "Their ability to massively coordinate action is just unparalleled. I'm
   serious when I say they are the most potent online force in the world
   right now," says TK Park, who has written about Korean pop culture and
   runs the "Ask A Korean!" blog.

   Organizing skills

   It may seem random, but the closer you look the more sense it makes.
   K-Pop has become a global phenomenon, with massive fan bases in every
   part of the world. In the United States, many of those fans are African
   Americans.

   As Park points out, K-Pop fans everywhere are very skilled at massive
   online campaigns with very specific goals. Usually, that means
   coordinated efforts by fans to push certain songs or videos up the
   music charts by streaming them obsessively or posting about the content
   on social media.

   "These groups of fans have accumulated a lot of [organizing] experience
   while supporting their idols," says Hong Seok-kyeong, a communications
   professor at Seoul National University. "It requires a great deal of
   logic and strategy, like setting a timeline or choosing a channel."

   But K-Pop fans are increasingly aiming their grassroots organizational
   powers at charitable and other causes, such as [1]raising money to help
   provide medical supplies to Syrian refugees, give meals to at-risk
   children in Rwanda, or rescue animals in India.

   Turbo-charged

   One in an ARMY (OIAA), an online collective of fans of the wildly
   popular boy band BTS, says it raised over $250,000 for charities in
   2019.

References

   1. https://www.oneinanarmy.org/about?lightbox=dataItem-jyrk39do

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