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The refusal of BTS to participate in next year’s Grammy Awards, the tragic death of Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja, and an exhibition about colonial film led to today’s newsletter. Read more below.

*) BTS = a famous South Korean music group, also known as the Bangtan Boys. The name stands for the Korean phrase Bangtan Sonyeondan, which means "Bulletproof Boy Scouts.”

Sanne

DEEP DIVE

The categories inherited from colonialism

BTS announced they will not submit their music for consideration at next year’s Grammy Awards, because they reject the Recording Academy's newly created Best Asian Pop Music Performance category. In a joint statement, the seven-member group said they want their music to be "heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language."

Interestingly, the Recording Academy said the decision for the new category was meant to increase inclusion, not cause exclusion. It makes you think about how institutions define diversity. Initiatives designed to recognize underrepresented groups can sometimes reinforce what they seek to dismantle. Think, for example, about museums that create separate "ethnic" exhibitions instead of integrating non-Western art into their permanent collections, or publishers and film awards that select works primarily through identity or geography.

The system of classification

The debate reminded me of the pattern in colonial times. In an exhibition called New Perspectives on Colonial Film Heritage in Eye, eleven artists respond to Eye’s collection of some 2,000 colonial-era films from formerly occupied regions in Indonesia and Suriname.

Colonial powers conquered territories and “classified” people, languages and cultures into categories that reflected Western ideas about difference and hierarchy. The footage in the museum shows Dutch colonizers in Indonesia doing exactly that. Scholars describe this process as “othering”: defining one group as the norm while placing others into separate, often subordinate, categories.

You could say that the Grammys' new Asian music category reproduces that colonial logic by distinguishing Asian artists not primarily by musical style, as it does with categories such as jazz, hip-hop, etc., but by geography and language.

BTS's decision not to compete is a rejection of being defined through a Western system of classification. Filipino-Portuguese TV and podcast host in Canada, Melissa Grelo, analyzed the case on Canadian television, saying:

Grelo mentions how the music event has “used” BTS over the years by only nominating the group so they could perform throughout the show, leading to millions of viewers watching the Grammys. Interestingly enough, Almost.co reported this weekend that the videos of BTS Grammy performances of their hit songs “Dynamite” and “Butter” have disappeared from the Recording Academy’s website since the group announced their boycott.

Beyonce was put in a separate category, too

After Beyoncé became the first Black woman to win the Grammy for Best Country Album with Cowboy Carter in 2025, the Recording Academy also restructured that specific category. From now on, there is an award for Best Traditional Country Album and one for Best Contemporary Country Album. The change was explained to better distinguish between traditional and modern styles of country music, but the timing created suspicion amongst fans and critics that Beyoncé's success had something to do with it.

Beyoncé's relationship with country music has been difficult for a long time. Her 2016 performance with The Chicks at the Country Music Association Awards drew a racist backlash from some viewers, despite country music's deep roots in Black musical traditions. Black musicians played a foundational role in the development of country music, although their contributions were often marginalized as the genre became increasingly associated with white artists.

Nirmal Purja was brutally honest

Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja raised a similar question about whose achievements receive global recognition when he completed the challenge of climbing all 14 of the world’s mountains above 8,000 metres. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please watch the Netflix documentary “14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible”.

I only learned about Purja when his tragic death was reported this weekend and my social media timelines flooded. I watched the film yesterday and saw a scene in which the mountaineer speaks to the media after the record-breaking expedition. Surrounded by cameras, he says:

Purja has always advocated for more visibility for Nepali Sherpas. Halfway through the documentary, he mentions how Western climbers who reach a summit often just mention that they were "helped by a Sherpa,” without mentioning the Sherpa’s name. That’s what he is referring to in this quote. And he is right; the media have the power to change this narrative.

Yes, this is how racism operates

The controversy around the Grammy Awards illustrates how racism can operate through the structures used to classify and recognize certain achievements. We like to focus on racist individuals or explicit discrimination because it’s easy to recognize. But creating a separate space for a globally dominant genre reinforces the idea that non-Western artists belong outside the mainstream.

Nirmal Purja’s criticism also points to a broader mechanism: systems built around Western standards of recognition in media continue to center Western people and perspectives, even when the individuals operating those systems believe they are being fair or inclusive. We can’t hide behind good intentions anymore.

The most interesting footage in the Eye exhibition came from amateur films that documented the social conditions of colonial society, including class divisions and racial hierarchies. By showing everyday life alongside images of plantations and resource extraction — the parts about the destruction of the earth and treating animals as products were most painful, especially in the context of current climate change — the archival footage shows how colonial power was embedded in ordinary experiences.
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As the BTS controversy and Nirmal Purja’s comments show: the systems have changed less than we often assume. The world continues to categorize and frame, and media play a huge role in deciding who is seen as universal and whose experiences and achievements become part of global history.

Takeaways for leaders in journalism and communication:

• Review how you organize people, stories, and audiences. Are you creating separate “diversity” sections that unintentionally suggest certain voices are outside the mainstream?
• Before publishing, ask: Whose experience is treated as universal? Whose knowledge is considered an expert perspective? The “default” is often invisible because institutions have historically been built around it. That’s what we call blindspots.
• Examine who makes editorial decisions, who sets agendas, and whose ideas shape the organization’s definition of quality.
• Nirmal Purja’s criticism of the phrase “helped by a Sherpa” shows how recognition can disappear through language use. Avoid reducing people to roles or identities; give credit and context.
• Diversity initiatives can have unintended consequences. Don't hide behind good intentions. Look at the effect it created; did people feel included? What changed because of the initiative? Did it reduce barriers or did it simply create a separate space? Good intentions are a starting point but not the measure of success.

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See you next time!

Sanne