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I participated in this great roundtable discussion on K-Pop and Racial Justice last week with @TheKpopProf and @mihyun_yoon about "what K-Pop fans need to know if they really love and support their idols" so here are the three biggest takeaways for me:
1/ Know the history and origins of K-Pop. It came from US military occupation and cultural influence in a war torn and destitute Korea, during a time of racial segregation in the US i.e. the 1950s, and those dynamics were brought to Korea as well. https://koreanwarlegacy.org/chapters/african-americans-in-the-korean-war/
2/ Understand that Asian faces, names, and cultures get heavily racialized, all of us, from the richest K-Pop idol to the poorest American-born struggling to make ends meet in the US- we get flattened by racism that erases our nationality, individuality. https://apnews.com/article/kpop-bts-anti-asian-racism-0c90645c99f48d2c7e5db34d6112d0c5
3/ YES Asian Americans have faced systemic racism, and starting from at least the 1960s we have been part of the broader fight for racial justice. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/corky-lees-photographs-helped-generations-of-asian-americans-see-themselves/amp
Asian American activism has even gone transnational as some diaspora will connect back to the politics of our home countries, *and* as those home countries become more multicultural and racially diverse.
We had a great turnout and great engagement, so I wanted to share my thoughts on that for ppl who couldn't make it. And I'm just thankful. 
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