I hope you don't mind me replying to your post, I way just having time to think about somethings on how to explain more on why I feel the way I do as an asian American having POTUS choose BTS to literally represent me. I hope that none of these things sound trivial.
Just for the record, in my personal opinion the only BTS member that I would let speak on my behalf as an AAPI would be Jin. Although Jin is not American nor has he lived in America he was a foreign exchange student in Australia, who am I to say that nothing racial ever happened to him.
Aa an Asian American growing up and even surviving in the world today is not the same experience that BTS has had growing up and faces every day. Now my examples may be different from other AAPI’s as I am half European as well as South East Asian. I am also writing this in comparison to my life in South Korea as well.
1.) School Lunches I can whole-heartedly tell you that BTS did not have the same experience that every single Asian kid had at school in the United States. I would bring Chicken Adobo to school, and heck I would get made fun of for that... you know why? simply because there was a bay leaf. Kids called my food dirty. I begged my parents to stop packing me Filipino food. In 6th grade all the Asians ended up sitting at the same table out of comfort, and on the clock, every Friday you would have a group of jerks that would come up to our table and tell up how gross, stinky, and weird our food was. Do you know what happened at BTS’s school??? everyone ate kimchi.
2.) Being the only/Only being a few Asians at school Now this is a given on why BTS clearly did not experience this as South Korea is literally about 95% Korean. I mean everywhere they looked they'd find someone that has their features and share the same culture. Have you ever wonder why Asians at school usually only hang out with other Asians? It’s not because we hate you or we dont want to be your friend. It’s a safety net because they're are only about 10-15 Asian kids at school my school district was LAUSD wether you were the same asian or not, there was a level of respect and a sense of freedom. A group of people you could hang around and literally let your hair down, be carefree, and not be judged on what your face looks like for about 15 minutes before the next class started. Don't even get me started on being laughed at by the entire class simply for being filipino.
3.) Parents BTS’s parents sure did not get laughed at by cashiers, on the phone. by classmates, by random people. They lived and still reside in Korea where they speak Korean, their native language. I dont think they had an accent issue or a language issue. the only time would be because of a dialect issue but thats mire about class. My parent has has that problem. In professional settings he has been laughed at because of the way he pronounces his P’s, F’s, B’s. and V’s. And get this, Although my dad speaks 3 languages, he often get treated as if he is illiterate simply because his accent but also, when you have more than one language going on in your head, you do forget words.
4.) Being Asian and walking outside You know, when BTS goes about their day just galivanting around everyone around then, next to them, down the street, 5 miles down, down in the next province, up in the north. their all Korean. They all eat the same food as you had the they all look like you. Okay so when I walk outside like im the only asian on my block, I've been called a Chick, China Girl, Chinita, Heck, I've even been told to go back to my country even though I've lived here longer than they have. I was in my was to a Hyukoh concert in West Hollywood and I took some dudes usual parking spot; As soon as I got out of the car he yelled at me “Move your car you fucking chink”. After the concert was over I was walking back to my car and I hear him with my friends saying “there's the chink, there she is look its the chink”. BTS does nit have that happen in their country
5.) Self loathing I dont know about other asians but I know that its a known but un-talked about in my family. There was a phase in my life, my siblings lives, my cousins lives, etc, where we all hid the fact that we were filipino. In a way we all wanted to be as white as possible. The only reason that I can think of is because we wanted to be accepted by the Caucasian crowd, because society and the media kept saying that asians were lame, nerdy and uncool. There was even a time in my life where I literally rejected my filipino side. looking back at it now, that is so sad to me. I highly doubt that BTS felt the need to try to be white to gain approval from their white peers at school or in the workplace... because Korea is only 5% foreigner
6.) Violence In South Korea, you dont have people following Asian people around threatening to kill them because of covid. You dont have people ganging up on elderly asian people telling them that they caused the virus. You dont have people killing you because of a racial fetish. You dont have people stalking you around calling you “Gook, Chink Jap”. You dont have people treat you like a second class citizen because your asian. No you dont have that. BTS does nit have that in their country. They do not experience that. Korea has some issues but this is not of them,
This is experience unique to AAPI’s. This is not an attack on BTS. However, as an AAPI I feel the especially insulted by POTUS for choosing an Asian Born Asian to represent Asian Americans. To me that just shows me that POTUS just sees us not as true Americans.