BTS, the K-Pop boy band whose popularity is so insanely high among its tween and early teen audience it’s guaranteed Joe Biden would cheerfully start World War Three to have 1/100^th of 1 percent as many fans — not counting the media, of course — visited the White House today (May 31^st). The band’s visit was not for a new album or tour promotion, but rather to highlight the uncomfortable truth of ongoing violence against Asian Americans.

Following the band’s appearance at the White House press briefing, during which the members proved themselves far more adept at public speaking in both English and Korean than press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the members had a private meeting with President Biden, highlighted by BTS using a globe to show the President where Korea is and repeatedly reminding him that regardless of how many times he asked, no, they are not The Who.

Cheap (but fun) shots at the current administration aside, the visit highlights a disturbing trend of unprovoked public assaults on Asian-Americans, many of them elderly, in American cities. Fellow RedState writers Brandon Morse and Mike Miller wrote last year about attacks and responses. While the news coverage has focused elsewhere as of late, the problem has not gone away, as this report from San Francisco a few days ago illustrates.

𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗮 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸 & 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗥𝗼𝗯𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘆: “𝘏𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦.”
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Neighbors at Felton & Brussels are furious over a 48-y/o woman who was attacked around 3:50pm Sat 5/21. (1)#AAPIHM #SanFrancisco pic.twitter.com/66j9oxmJfA

— Dion Lim (@DionLimTV) May 27, 2022

Alongside physical assaults, the intellectual assault against the Asian-American community by the left, demanding it embrace the soft bigotry of low expectations and not receive the logical reward of academic excellence’s pursuit, has been going on for quite some time. As fellow RedState writer Alex Parker pointed out earlier in 2022, MIT has stopped ignoring SAT scores during admissions, after realizing competing schools were harvesting far richer yields:

As noted by The College Fix, UC Berkeley Professor Steven Hayward has a very unwoke explanation for the reversal, and it involves archenemies:

“I have a hunch that MIT’s decision was driven by competitive pressure, namely, that its arch-rival for science supremacy in academia — CalTech — might start to leave MIT conspicuously behind if MIT continued down the road to politically correct admissions practices. CalTech has never embraced affirmative action admission dogma, and hence has a larger Asian student body than peer universities.”

While BTS as a music entity seldom finds mention in the same breath as, say, The Beatles or Bob Dylan, it is refreshing to see the band and its handlers use its popularity as a force for good. In a society increasingly determined to rip itself apart along racial lines, may God’s language of music — yes, even when performed by a boy band — help spread love and acceptance’s truth among those with ears to hear.