K-Pop Fandoms' Undeniable Power As They Mobilise For Black Lives Matter

10 June 2020, 14:43 | Updated: 10 June 2020, 14:49

K-pop fandoms are being praised for their united efforts in the Black Lives Matter movement- using unorthodox methods and Gen Z techniques they know best to help, from crashing police websites to raising millions at the snap of a finger.

K-pop Stans and Twitter are the closest knit BFFs in the friendship group of Gen Z, and are ready and equipped to take down any oppressive force that steps in people's way- which is exactly what fandoms are doing during the latest wave of Black Lives Matter protests, showing everyone how to use an extremely powerful force for good.

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Raising a million dollars to match the BLM donation made by BTS practically overnight, honestly, by Stan standards, is child's play- they're out there doing so much more in the space of a week.

When protests broke out across the US, they quickly rallied together to spam 'fancam' videos of bands to jam police 'snitch' apps asking people to report protestors to- and it worked, crashing Dallas police department's app.

As one Twitter user put it: "I never thought I'd see the day when gifs of very pretty, very dramatic Korean boys would be a legitimately powerful tactic for opposing a fascist regime. We are in the weirdest timeline."

The fandom also took over the entire #whitelivesmatter hashtag, drowning out racist messages with K-pop content, much to the amusement of people clicking through to the trending tag filled with doom.

The unstoppable rise and power of the fandoms lie in its global reach- K-pop fans are spread across almost every single country across the globe, and their (mostly) young demographic are leaps and bounds ahead in social media expertise with an acute understanding of how to maximise every inch of a platform.

They are, for all intents and purposes, also relatively invisible- anyone can be, and is, a part of the fandom.

Typically, their social media mobilisation has been to engage and promote with their favourite k-pop act, be it BLACKPINK or BTS, but now, there's a more urgent rallying cry, the rights of Black people, many of which are long standing members of these fandom communities.

The year is 2020, we're a good three months into a global pandemic and Oscar winning writer-director Jordan Peele is tweeting he loves K-pop Stans in the middle of a powerful Black Lives Matter movement, and everyone's just going to have to get their heads around it, fast!

Because, by the time people understand how methods of protest and disruption have progressed- it's likely the internet will have already moved on, that's just the fast-paced and ever-shifting reality of social media and the young people who know how to use it.

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