Poplitical Theory: Grace

Girl Groups Cannot Thrive When Black Members Are Experiencing Racism

Teguan Harris — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 16:02:23 GMT

Screenshot of Manon Bannerman in KATSEYE’s “Gameboy” music video, directed by Aerin Moreno

The audacity to expect so much from Black girl group members and give them horse manure in return, but that’s racism for you. We saw this with Leigh Anne Pinnock from Little Mix, Normani Kordei from Fifth Harmony, and now we are seeing this with Manon Bannerman from KATSEYE in 4k. Following the news that Manon will be taking a temporary hiatus from KATSEYE to focus on her health and well-being, Leigh-Anne and Normani publicly supported her. They know what it is like to be the only Black girl in a girl group and receive racist hate from fans.

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I said this before, and I will say it again: when you are a Black woman, or the only Black woman in a girl group, you are never safe from hyper scrutiny and obsessive and mentally incompetent nitpicking. Especially when your fanbase is full of K-pop fans, who expect nothing but constant attendance on stage from their idols, even if they have to perform on stage with an oxygen mask. The hate towards Black women in girl groups had been obsessive and incredibly weird, to put it very kindly, and this has been happening for years. You’d think that things may slightly change in 2026. Apparently not.

Girlgroup Fanbases Had Normalised Racist Bullying Towards Black Women

When you’re a Black woman in a girl group, you can never be too talented. You can never be too inexperienced. You can never be too loud or too quiet. You can never really just be. Every move you make is hyperanalysed. Every breath you take brings a huge reaction. Your presence is seen as a threat, and you are immediately othered by the fanbase.

When Normani went on a social media hiatus following racist abuse, she wrote at the end of her letter, “I’m not the first black female celebrity to deal with this, and I’m sure I won’t be the last.” Sadly, this had become true. Normani, Leigh-Anne, Manon, and Fatou from Blackswan all received racist abuse from their fanbases and the general public, and they are left to fend for themselves. Even before their time, other Black girl group members were met with the same fate, as Melanie Brown from the Spice Girls and Keisha Buchanan from Sugababes experienced macroaggressions.

Fans have used silly excuses to inflict racism towards Black women. Normani called her former bandmate Camila Cabello “quirky” and “cute”, which resulted in a break from social media after fans racially abused her. Leigh-Anne dared to vocalise her treatment as the only Black girl in Little Mix, pushing fans to finally express how they truly felt about her. Manon from KATSEYE did the most catastrophic thing anyone could do and prioritised her health in the overly edited Pop Star Academy docuseries on Netflix, and fans punished her by calling her “lazy” (a historically racist stereotype) and racially attacking her for nearly three years, and even went as far as to deny her Blackness.1

Why girl groups can never fully thrive is because of fanbases abusing Black women, dividing the fans and even the girls. Girl groups represent power. They are often up against men in music spaces with the fans’ support, but where is the unity when the fanbases are tearing Black members apart? Fanbases, such as the Mixers, Eyekons and Hamrmonizers, act like they have to “tolerate” Black women’s presence in the group. They are held to high standards that are almost contradictory; they are to be partially seen and not heard, and yet have to overly perform, be perfect, and prove that they belong.

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They are nitpicked and hyperscrutinised. It became a goal to break Black women down and bully them with racist stereotypes and slurs in the name of “criticism” and “just being honest.” Black women can never truly meet these high standards if the goalposts are constantly moved. They could execute a performance perfectly, and it would still not be enough.

Black Women In Girl Groups Are Pushed To the Back and Thrown To the Wolves

Girl groups have slowly become an unsafe space for Black women for this reason. Not only are they disregarded by fans and pushed to the back, but they are also expected to stay silent about racism and the mistreatment they face. Leigh-Anne has had a turbulent time in Little Mix, which escalated following former bandmate Jesy Nelson’s departure from the group. Fans shunned Leigh-Anne after she spoke up about her experience, which worsened when she spoke up against Jesy’s cultural appropriation. Fans labelled Leigh-Anne as sensitive and a bully.

What Normani experienced in Fifth Harmony is extremely different to the rest of the girls in the group. In an interview with Billboard, she recalled tense studio sessions where she was brought to tears and forced to sing background vocals. In another interview with Allure, she recalled how she “didn’t get to really sing in the group.” “I felt like I was overlooked,” she said, affirming that Normani was reduced to smaller roles and was hidden by executives.

Normani in her DOPAMINE era

Manon from KATSEYE is a prime example of this. She had been left alone to withstand the racist bullying as a result of her unfair portrayal as the inexperienced, lazy and undeserving Black girl in the overly edited Netflix documentary. To portray Manon in that negative light in the documentary shows that she was used as a marketing ploy to stir conversations, rather than value her as a core member of the group. Not enough grace and nuance have been offered; the documentary failed to highlight that other girls have missed rehearsals, the rehearsals she skipped were non-mandatory, and it is Swiss culture to take a break when you are feeling unwell, as explained in her recent interview with The Cut.

Black women in girl groups were not seen as members; executives used them as props and decoys. This is why girl groups can never truly thrive, as no one is challenging the industry and executives on their mistreatment of Black women. All members should be treated and seen as members. If Black women continue to face racist and macroaggressive attacks and are pushed out of these spaces, it will become harder to celebrate girl groups, especially when their Black fans are watching.

What is a Girl Group Renaissance When Racism is a Common Problem?

The fans and the industry normalised the mistreatment of Black women in these spaces. Black women are expected to endure the bullying and the racism, internalise it and accept it, as speaking out would come with consequences. Racism from the fanbase and mistreatment from the industry were just standard and an experience Black women must endure.

The Media and Fans Are Villainizing Love Island USA's Olandria Carthen, But The True Villain is The Racist and the One Who Has Let The Racism Foster For Months

Teguan Harris — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 23:53:07 GMT

Olandria Carthen via Instagram

This issue of The T Word is going to point out everything Love Island USA’s Olandria Carthen did wrong last week:

Nothing.
Nothing.
Nada.
Zilch.
~~Call out racism~~ nothing.

That’s it. That’s the end of today’s issue. Come back by the end of the week. Follow me on Instagram.

That’s how all articles that point out Carthen’s supposed wrongdoing should be written. Instead, the media, such as US Weekly and Complex, spun Huda Mustafa’s and Louis Russell’s (Too Hot To Handle and Perfect Match) wrongdoings to angle how Carthen “attacked” Mustafa for laughing at a harmful racial slur in a live.

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No amount of changed headlines and apologies is going to fix the damage that has already been done by how they portrayed Carthen’s reaction to Mustafa’s apology and wrongdoing. Mustafa’s underage and undereducated fans have attacked Carthen for reacting to the racism she has been on the receiving end of for months. Other Black women, including influencers and past contestants such as JaNa Craig, have publicly stood up for Carthen. As expected, they have been faced with the same attacks.

And we are supposed to believe that Mustafa is the victim in all of this.

The truth is, even if Carthen attacked Mustafa for laughing at a fan calling her the n-word, that’s what Mustafa deserves. For months since she came out of the villa, she had been given countless opportunities to call out her fans for the racism Carthen and Chelley Bissainthe received. If she had held her fans accountable in the first place, none of this would be happening – and Mustafa’s career would not be heading for the landfill.

Black Women Are Vilified – Not Victimised

The truth is, Black women are not allowed to be victims. Black women are not allowed to react to disrespect and racism. We should expect it; we should expect mistreatment and blame ourselves for how we are perceived. So it is no surprise that Complex, US Weekly, Yahoo News, The Blast, eNews, Daily Mirror, Revolt, and People Magazine have victimised Mustafa and portrayed her laughing at the n-word in the livestream as an innocent mistake and used microaggressive undertones to display Carthen as aggressive.

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A lot of these publications rewrote the headlines and the stories, but they will always be examples of how Black women are villainised in the media, even if we are victims. The hardest gut punch is that some of these articles that paint Carthen as aggressive were written by Black journalists; even some people from our own community are against her.

It is not just blogs and the news that vilify Black women. Reality TV shows use the same playbook to portray Black women in a microaggressive light, which contributed to the huge hate train and racism Carthen faced during her time in the villa. Not enough criticism went to Love Island USA for using misleading editing for drama, which attracted vile hate and George Floyd edits towards Carthen. They have had every opportunity to address the racism and hate that Carthen and Bissainthe received. But because they failed to protect the Black women on the show, this is where we are: random fans calling Black Love Island alumni racial slurs and thinking that it is a normal thing to do.

Huda Mustafa’s Criticism Should Go Further Than That Livestream

It bears repeating that Mustafa is not the victim in this situation. She’s the villain. She made her fans comfortable enough to hurl racist abuse at Black women from the moment she left the villa. All this time, she has had every opportunity to hold her fans accountable for the racism Carthen and Bissainthe have received. Their racism and bullying have now spanned to Black makeup influencers and past islanders for publicly supporting Carthen and praising Huda Beauty for dropping her, and she still has not learnt her lesson.

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Mustafa will never be the victim, no matter how her racist and deranged fans want to spin it. Past islanders who have remained close to Mustafa have no obligation to publicly support her—she does not deserve any. Mustafa did this to herself; by making fans comfortable with racially abusing Black women and allowing them to viciously attack others, she is destroying her own career.

Both of Mustafa’s statements and apologies fail to address the true issue at hand: the continuous racism and abuse her Black female costars have faced and have continued to face post-villa. She has yet to take accountability for the tears she weaponised that resulted in racist bullying towards the Black women to the point that brands such as BuzzFeed racially targeted Bissainthe. Then again, this is the same woman that has spent her entire Love Island experience attacking two Black men for having boundaries and options, which she was rewarded for. Given her behaviour in the villa and her silence on the racism Bissainthe and Carthen experienced, this scandal isn’t surprising. It’s shocking that it didn’t happen sooner.

Love Island USA, Huda Mustafa, And The Media Need to Learn From This

The media deserves to be held accountable. So does the racist. So do Mustafa and Russell. So do Love Island USA and Peacock for failing to protect Black women. So do Mustafa’s fans, who are racially abusing any Black women who speak up. So do the other islanders who fuelled the racist hate train towards Carthen once they were dumped from the villa and have not spoken up in defence of her since. And as for the other islanders who have made statements about the racism Carthen faced from a livestream she was not even a part of, they are nothing but performative; these statements fail to properly call out the racist and Mustafa and Russell for their “awkward” response.

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Social Media Is Ruining Love Island. There. I Said It.

No one expected Season 6 of Love Island USA to be as successful as it was. We had the PPG, drama, and crashouts, and the popularity even got the cast their own spinoff series. The success of both the contestants and the show put pressure on Season 7 to meet the fans’ high expectations. The new season is “giving,” but…

10 months ago · Teguan Harris

When Black women are targeted with relentless racism and harassment online, do not expect us to stay silent. Do not expect us to accept empty apologies from those who do not believe that they have anything to apologise for and just apologise for convenience and to prevent themselves from looking even worse than they do. And as for Carthen and Black women everywhere, we deserve to be heard, and we should not stay silent.

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The Mistreatment of Manon from KATSEYE Is Nothing New or Surprising, Unfortunately.

Teguan Harris — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 17:45:59 GMT

Image of Manon from Lollapalooza, Chicago.

If you’re a Black woman in a girl group, you’re never safe from hypercriticism and racism. Manon (Meret) Bannerman from the trending girl group named KATSEYE is proof of that. The group is approaching its two-year mark, and since the debut, Manon has never caught a break. With this new wave of hate flooding her way, it seems like she will never get the break she deserves.

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A lot of the hate Manon receives is thought to be coming from outside the fandom, but that was never the case. KATSEYE’s so-called “Eyekons” are a lot of Manon’s biggest haters and “OT5,” meaning that they do not want Manon in the group. Sadly, we have seen this pattern before, as there has always been a target on Black women in girl groups, especially when they are the only Black woman in the group. Only this time, Manon is the newest target.

Black Women Are Held to Impossible Standards, Including KATSEYE’s Manon

Screenshot of KATSEYE’s Gap commercial, directed by Bethany Vargas

Every video and every performance, fans constantly nitpick and microanalyze every movement Manon makes. Many know and understand that Manon is the least experienced member of the group, as she has significantly less training in singing and dancing. Despite always being able to keep up with her peers, fans cannot help but offer “helpful” criticism in the comments, despite the group’s choreographers, Grant Gilmore and Sohey Sugihara, appreciating her growth in an interview with Marie Claire.

What Eyekons fail to understand is that Manon can never catch up to the other girls in experience. It’s simply impossible. She will always be the least experienced, and with the experience she has, she keeps up and blends in really well. They expect perfection from the only Black woman in the group, with the promise of very little reward and recognition. They expect her to keep proving herself as if she owes them, although she does not have to prove herself to anyone, especially if her non-Black bandmates are not held to the same standard.

It is also widely understood in the KATSEYE fanbase that Manon’s immune system is weaker than most and that she is a hypochondriac, which causes her to miss out on interviews and only three performances (not counting Laufey). The misunderstanding of Manon being “always missing” in group activities is far-fetched, as fans ignore her constantly pushing through and being present and fellow member Megan Skiendiel being missing for the majority of the Soft Is Strong era last year due to injury (she received far more grace than Manon). The hate and criticism that Manon gets for being sick are heavily rooted in eugenics: Black women are rarely believed when we say that we are ill and in pain, and they allude to this belief and stereotype that Black women are strong on Manon.

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Even when Manon proves Eyekons wrong about her dancing, such as being able to keep up in dance breaks and pushing through ill health to perform, they move the goalpost and find new flaws. Whereas Normani Kordei from Fifth Harmony had been accused of “doing too much” and trying to outshine her members while also dealing with constant racism and threats. The question does remain: what more do these fans want from Black women? When will fans be satisfied?

Why Are KATSEYE Fans So Comfortable Bullying Manon Online?

Screenshot of KATSEYE’s “Gameboy” music video directed by Aerin Moreno.

The Netflix documentary Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE caused monumental damage to Manon’s reputation. The documentary omitted important context and edited the documentary to portray Manon as “lazy”, which is a racist stereotype. Manon had proved herself to be a hard worker, with her bandmates, particularly Sophia Laforteza, Lara Raj, and Daniela Avanzini, speaking about how Manon would always ask for extra practice.

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Sadly, Eyekons are far more forgiving towards problematic idols who drop racial slurs with no apology than an inexperienced Black woman who was not used to the intense training, apologised for missing practice, took accountability, and amended her mindset. Manon’s lack of experience and her portrayal gave Eyekons a reason to constantly nitpick at Manon online by throwing the “lazy” tag at her and criticising her for what she does outside of the band during her free time. They scrutinise her for missing performances despite the doctor’s orders, though they do not know the true extent of what is happening behind the scenes.

Black women can never do anything right in these fans’ eyes. Even when they do, they are often ignored and favour non-Black members instead. Other fans would praise Manon online, and a lot of Eyekons would rush to put her down in favour of another member and attempt to humble her. Leigh-Anne Pinnock of Little Mix, on the other hand, was the most underappreciated and least followed member and began to lose followers once she spoke up about the racism she received.

When Will KATSEYE Fans Be Satisfied With Manon? When Will Fans Be Satisfied with Black Women Overall?

Screenshot of KATSEYE’s “My Way” lyric video, directed by Lumpens. View full credits here

The real question is, when will Black women be enough? When will we reach the impossible standards set and satisfy others? When will the hyper-scrutiny end? When will we receive as much grace as our non-white counterparts? When will the racial bias stop?

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If You're Just Getting Into KATSEYE, Their Netflix Documentary is the Worst Place to Start.

7 months ago · Teguan Harris

Like a lot of hate on Black women, there is no logic to their reasons for mistreating Manon. A lot of fans lack common sense, and it’s proven in the criticism she gets. She cannot skip performances “because she felt like it” under a legally binding and expensive contract. She cannot fake illnesses “because she knows she cannot keep up” when she is legally required to attend rehearsals with the others and has constantly been improving. Manon is aware of the lazy allegations she had been receiving, so there is no logical reason for her to fuel these discussions on purpose.