In a year when anti-Asian hate reached a fever pitch, two major US publications this month named three high profile Asians their persons of the year.
Time named Joe Biden and Kamala Harris its persons of the year with Harris the first Vice President-elect ever to win the honor. Biden, 78, also earned the distinction of being the oldest person to win the award, NPR reported.
“If Donald Trump was a force for disruption and division over the past four years, Biden and Harris show where the nation is heading: a blend of ethnicities, lived experiences and worldviews that must find a way forward together if the American experiment is to survive,” the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthal said in Time.
Time also named BTS its entertainer of the year. It’s been a year of firsts for the K-pop sensations. As AsAmNews previously reported, they’re the first all South Korean act to top the Billboard singles chart. They also set a single day record of views on YouTube for their single Dynamite. That single also earned the group their first major Grammy nomination.
“They’ve become the biggest band in the world—full stop. Between releasing multiple albums, breaking every type of record and appearing in these extemporaneous livestreams in 2020, BTS ascended to the zenith of pop stardom,” Time wrote.
AsAmNews earlier reported Sports Illustrated named Naomi Osaka one of five sportspersons of the year. All five, (Laker Lebron James, WNBA star Breanna Stewart, and Kansas City Chiefs teammates Patrick Mahomes and Laurent Duvernay-Tardiff), shared the honor primarily for bringing attention to racial injustice and inequality, although Duvernay-Tardiff primarily received it for quitting football to join the frontlines for hospital scrubs to fight against COVID-19.
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