ʙᴛꜱ ᴀᴍʙᴡ ᴏɴᴇ-ꜱʜᴏᴛꜱ, ꜱᴄᴇɴᴀʀɪᴏꜱ, ᴀɴᴅ ꜱʜᴏʀᴛ ꜱᴛᴏʀɪᴇꜱ | ʙᴛꜱ x ᴏᴄ

The one with the Vlive (JHS)

"No, honey. I'm fully black. Stop projecting your insecurities on to other people. Love yourself without putting others down to uplift yourself. Y'all say that same shit to Hazel and it's not okay. Even if we were biracial it wouldn't matter one bit."

  Grace sits back and folds her arms, having watched herself say what had apparently become controversial. She stared expectantly at her fiancé's manager, waiting to hear his spiel.

  "As a company, we fully understand your frustration with some fans regarding how they speak to you," Grace purses her lips expectantly.

"However, we do need to maintain our image. As Hoseok's spouse you are affiliated with the company, the general public considers you to be one of our representatives. Despite not being tied to us contractually, Grace-ssi, we would appreciate if you toned down the vulgarity."

  Grace hums, looking at Hoseok beside her. When he picked her up from work explaining that his managers wanted to have a word with her, she fully expected to be met with complete ignorance and lack of understanding to the situation. However, they hardly acknowledged why Grace had said what she did in that Vlive she did last week that seemed to upset a few fans, some of which attempted to 'cancel' her, spreading hashtags like #StopTheWedding.

  Some fans decided to address her directly during a live she was doing with Hoseok. They were doing HopeOnTheStreet, and up until they started trending a hateful hashtag - which wasn't even true! - as the couple was live. They were blowing up Grace's phone with bullshit rumors.

  Apparently she was 'lying about her race' and 'not fully black'. Apparently, she got surgery to alter her features to look more 'black' and treated her hair to look curlier. There were many things wrong with these accusations, and so many layers to it it was ridiculous.

  First the world hated her for being black and getting engaged to one of Korea's most successful celebrities (among six others that she knew of). Now people within the black community were mad because she 'wasn't black enough'? Grace thought it was a fucking joke. They say the same thing about Hazel, because like Grace she has lighter skin. Ingrid used to receive similar comments, but she shut that shit down when Jieun was born. When she threatened to sue people for defamation (yes, it was that severe) people went quiet for a while and left her alone. But now they were targeting Grace and Hazel.

  Apparently it started on Twitter. Some people on Black Twitter had a problem with the fact that Grace was marrying a Korean, spouting all kinds of conservative bullshit and 'why can't she have a black king?' Grace personally felt that it was because she had a following in the dance world before hand, she's dated black guys in the past, though not exclusively, and never publicly. Not to mention as a majorette dancer, she gained a lot of popularity, even more so when she began to tour with celebrities - black celebrities. To many people, she was a prominent and proud member of the black community. Until she and Hoseok went public - and that was an ordeal in itself, because it wasn't by choice - no one had any issues with her being light skin and having brown hair.

  Further more, some fans were accusing her of being mixed, which was not only untrue but entirely irrelevant. Grace identifies as a black woman because she is a black woman, and she doesn't need anyone trying to dictate what she can and can't be. She's tolerated a lot of shit just for being with Hobi, undergone a lot of hate, backlash, slander, defamation, stalking, and other extreme invasions of her privacy. She endured a lot of it because she chose to be with Hoseok, and unfortunately all that comes with him being so famous. The difference is that such things were manageable. However she was never going to tolerate being illegitimated solely on basis of her appearance. What's more fucked up about it is that when Grace and Hobi eventually do have their biracial children, would people have a problem with that? If this was how the black community treats her for simply appearing to have another ethnicity, what the hell were they going to say to their children when they will actually be biracial? It was infuriating.

  Hoseok offers her a gentle smile, he knew it wasn't his place to speak on the issue at all, especially not publicly. So much of the media try to get his take on the whole thing and he hasn't commented. Some people think he should put a muzzle on his wife for her so-called 'crude' comments that she made to the accusation some fans have made. But he was on her side, Grace knew Hobi loved her regardless of how fully black she is. At the end of the day it doesn't. Fucking. Matter.
 
  Grace recalled exactly what was said that led to what she said live on camera, and she said it with no shame or regret whatsoever. The fan wrote; I'm loving that she's a poc and all but I just wished she looked more black. 😭😭😭 Like imagine if our Hobi had a fully melinated QUEEN like Yoongi👑 Like I'm sorry, her light skin and long curly brown hair just ain't doing it for me. She looks half white.

  Apparently Mya, and Mya alone, was the epitome of the female black appearance. The woman had dark, rich ebony skin, long dreads, full lips and features. Why is it that these fans were reinforcing so many stereotypes onto her, and further more the other spouses in Bangtan? They want to be represented - Grace knew the importance of it - but projecting your visual expectations onto real people was never okay. Just because Grace and Hazel don't look like their ideal little poster child they couldn't be considered equals? What made darker skin and tighter curl patterns so much better? And vice versa? It was all their natural looks, not a single one of the women had gone under the knife for cosmetic purposes, nor did they plan to.

  Hoseok grabs Grace's hand, "Don't work yourself up again, jagiya. I know how much it pisses you off but we have to handle things like this with a level head. They're just rumors and comments, they won't hold any power if you don't give it to them." He reasoned. He'd heard Grace ranting about this very issue before. Most of the reasonable fans came to her defense, as did the members themselves. Even the company was on her side, though they wished she hadn't used any profanity to address it. Ingrid had publicly and professionally addressed the public and the fans about it, and the result was overwhelmingly positive. It showed that it was possible to stand up for yourself without facing too much backlash.

  She sighs softly, bobbing her head. "Alright, Hobi. I'm sorry for the profanity, but I meant what I said. That will never change. I'm not ever going to defend my worth to anybody, that includes fans and members of the black community." This was why Grace chose to stay out of the spotlight, now, to avoid more reoccurring issues like this.

  She was looking forward to it blowing over.

🌺 This got a little rambly but these are rampant issues irl and I'm tired of it. Anyways thanks for reading 💜