 What was the real reason why BTS got invited to the White House? Was it to solve Asian America's problems or are they political pawns? Welcome everybody to the hot pop boys. Global superstars BTS got invited to the White House to do a one on one sit down with President Joe Biden himself. Now, a lot of people are proud of them doing it and they're happy about it. But a lot of people are also kind of confused because they're like, wait, why did they go there representing Asian Americans if they're not American? I mean, I think you can look at this as simple as these are some global pop superstars meeting a president head of state. It happens all the time all the way to like, man, what are the implications for Asian America? And guess what? We're going to be talking about the implications for Asian America right now. So if you guys are excited about this video, hit that like button, check out other videos of the hot pop boys and please leave your comment down below. So we got five crazy takeaways, but here's the first one guys. Shout out to the BTS army overall. I thought it was a net positive. You know, RM, he is eloquent in English. I thought the things they said in Korean were nice. They're just like, we are different. We have different cultures, different histories. We can learn to respect each other. I thought that was important to acknowledge differences on the way to peace. Uh, Biden, strangely enough, Andrew also had a good bar. He said, you know, when good people talk about the bad things that are hidden, they tend to go down. All right. So let's be honest. I don't think any hard solutions came from that conversation. You know, it's not going to save anybody's life, but overall did shed a lot of light onto the issue. Was there a whole record number of reporters in the room where a whole other bunch of other politicians trying to get a seat in that room. So listen, it made people care about this talk, whether it was just based off a PR move using the star power of BTS or not. It can still be positive for Asian American, whether Biden knew they were pop stars, they were the Asian Beatles, or he actually thought they were in charge of some type of army or whether or not they're trying to maybe capture some votes from the BTS army demographic that can vote in America. It was dope to see Asian guys seem that powerful, you know, and especially they're not like, uh, you know, it's, it's pop stars. You know what I mean? Like they're very lesion in the suits. Yeah. They're very Asian. Listen, they embody Asian culture. So for them to be that famous and be on that stage, you know, whether or not you agree with it, it was a net positive in my opinion. I will say I was skeptical at first. I was like, wait, why are they at the White House? What is this going to do? But you take a step back and you're like, Hey, this was still better than nothing. And anytime Tucker Carlson gets mad, it kind of goes to show you that the Democrats did score a big hit. Right. You know what I mean? Like I said, we're not picking sides. I'm just saying in terms of overall how it played, even though we were going to get into the controversy later, like it was a net positive. Moving on point number two, Andrew, it was confusing. It sparked some internet debate because they're like, wait, wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is a H N P I, which is Asian American native Hawaiian Pacific Islander month and all this stuff's happening in America. Why is this pop group of these like gorgeous guys from that are raised in South Korea probably sheltered from a lot of these things? Why are they speaking out as our big dogs? Well, you know what's funny about them? They can actually kind of relate on some level because they experienced a lot of racism and discrimination from the global music industry. Right. Because even though they're from Asia, maybe they didn't grow up with racism for being Asian in Asia, right? But when they enter the global market, that's when they're they're at the high school with everybody else. I've noticed that a lot of VJs, whether it's from America, Canada, South America, Australia, not all of them occasionally, they'll try to downplay BTS's success because they'll be like, yeah, who are these like girly boys like singing and dancing on top of the charts? We like our own music. It's kind of nativist. Yeah. You know, so they're not maybe they're not on the streets of New York or Oakland experiencing all this stuff firsthand. But, you know, they have some context for it. Let's give them some credit. I think they care about their fan base, too, which is located in Western countries, probably going through it or at least seeing it online. And also doesn't make sense that it's from South Korea, which is has very close ties and positive ties with America versus, let's be honest, pop stars from China, which is definitely the geopolitical adversary right now. China would be viewed as some sort of anything from a rival to a arch nemesis right now, at least. And then South Korea would be viewed as like a good homie. But, you know, other people would call it, you know, like I said, there's other words, neo-colonial state, vassal state, not my words. But, you know, it was interesting to see Biden and BTS hanging out like it was almost like the 1980s, you know, like, like hands across America, like Americana, kind of like, you know, back in like the Rambo days, like, good guy with good guy. All right, guys, point number three. David, does this show that Asian-Americans, we just don't have that many stars to represent us that can draw this much attention? Yeah, I mean, I think if you would have assembled like the famous Asian-American Avengers of the past like six, seven years, you'd have like Michelle Yeoh, BTS, Rich Brian would show up. Maybe Henry Golding would be there and none of them would be American. Yeah, even Seymour, I think he has a Canadian passport. But you could have Jeremy Lin and Aquafina show up. But as far as like drawing the attention right now, I mean, yes, I think, and we're going to get into it in a later point, I think a lot of Asian-Americans are starting to realize that the global narrative is kind of our narrative. Yeah, I think that it's interesting. You can learn like almost like better American skills in an international school overseas sometimes than you can as an Asian-American. And it's so funny because Eileen Gu, who is a gold medalist of the Olympics, she won the gold for China and not America. So I don't think she'll be meeting with Biden. Oh, if Eileen Gu had won it for the US, I guarantee you she would have went to the White House by now, but I'm sure she's completely forever banned from the White House. All right. Point number four is that the Asian-American identity is becoming more and more complex and that we may have to accept a global narrative as our Asian-American narrative. What I mean by that is that there is so much talent, Asian talent coming from overseas, not just from Asia, but other Westernized countries. Even if that's Australia, UK or, you know, other Asian countries like Indonesia, and they're adding to the rise and the representation of Asians in media that we kind of end up accepting them as honorary Asian-Americans. But do we accept them or is it just like the game is the game? No, I feel like some Asian-Americans, they do accept them as Asian-American and some do not. As you can see on the internet, there's like a lot of debate. But with so many immigrants coming over at the age of five, 10, 15 or people growing up in international schools and they're representing Asians in media, it's almost like the lines are becoming so murky and blurry that you don't really know who's that American passport holder or not. And does it, I have a question. Leave it in the comments down below. Does it really matter as Asian-Americans? Are we just buying into this old school American? No, you know why they're not Asian-American? Let me finish. Let me finish as Asian-Americans. Are we just buying into this old school American exceptionalism by judging these Asians being like, you're not American like me. You didn't grow up exactly like me in, in Seattle. You didn't grow up in New York like me. You didn't grow up in Oakland, LA like me. No, man. You know why it is why it's because they didn't get picked on enough. Ah, they got, they got to grow up and be the elites and have all the systems where they're from. That's an assumption because if you're Asian and you grew up in a Western country, high-likeliness, you still got bullied in some respect. Yeah, but it might have not been in the American way. But like I said, BTS still went through discrimination, joining the global market of the music industry. So I'm not, I'm not saying they experienced it like Asian-Americans, but they're not the same roses from the concrete. I'm just kidding. I mean, I think it's up for a debate, guys. I don't really have a strong opinion on it. I will say this though, it is what it is to our final point. Listen, guys, whether you support BTS being like the big dogs of Asian- America or not, which I think there's valid arguments on both sides. Asian-America is just not at the point of development and we didn't put the work in and we didn't have the unity to gatekeep. So we got to take the help that we can get if our like older cousins or like second cousins from Asia want to come and represent us and they have that much more clout and power than us. We have to take it. So be it. You know what I mean? Like, you know, maybe we can grumble internally and be like, oh, we don't have anybody, you know, I wish we had Bruce Lee again or whatever, or I wish Jeremy was still killing the league. We could say that. But at the end of the day, we got to be happy for BTS. But Bruce Lee is like the only sort of Asian-American. Right. He was still raised overseas. Yeah. So I think just accepting the fact that, you know what, guys? Like whoever can help Asian-Americans. That's Asian is almost Asian-American. Like at this point, if you have Asiatic blood flowing through your veins, if you got the Manga Lloyd features and you're doing something cool, you're talented and positive, we'll take you Asian-American. I don't know because it still has an impact. Because listen, also when we talk about Asians in America, that's not just including people whose English is their first language. That's actually just Asians living in America in this context. Anyways, guys, this could be a longer conversation. I want to leave it up to you to leave it in the comments down below. What you think? Those were our five takeaways. Like we said, overall, net positive, very interesting. You know, like I said, it's as serious or as silly as you want it to be. Hey, guys, so let us know in the comments down below. Please check out other episodes of the hot pop boys, David, Andrew. And until next time, we out. Peace.