BTS Reveals Why They Donated $1 Million to Black Lives Matter

The group, which consists of seven members Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook, recently spoke to Variety to explain the reason behind their generous donation in June. Without giving any specifics, Jin said they have also been subjected to prejudice.

“We feel that prejudice should not be tolerated; it really has no place,” he said. “We started to discuss what we could do to help, whether it was a donation or something else.”

“It was a decision we thought about very carefully: what could we do, as part of our overall message of speaking out against prejudice and violence?” group leader RM said. “We discussed it very carefully with the company and that’s how this came about.”

In the first issue of Weverse Magazine, BTS revealed they were subjected to COVID-19 related racism when they visited SiriusXM in New York City in February.

BTS made it clear they do not consider themselves to be political when they made the donation.

“I don’t consider ourselves as political. I don’t want to speak in political terms,” Suga said. “Ours are initiatives that any person who wishes to live in a just world would want to pursue. We aren’t trying to send out some grandiose message.”

“We always want to do what we can to make it a better world, whether in Korea or elsewhere, and go in as much of a positive direction as we can, whether through our music or charity,” J-Hope said.

RM echoed the same sentiment as Suga and further explained their goal with the donation.

“Our goal and what we really want to see is for everyone to be able to lead safe lives,” he said. “That’s the motivation for donating to BLM or our UNICEF campaign and other initiatives.”

After news of their donation reached their fans, ARMY, they immediately raised money to match their idols’ donation the next day.

Feature Image Screenshot via Variety