K-Pop’s First And “Forgotten” Black Idol’s Mistreatment Shows Heartbreaking Possibilities For KATSEYE’s Manon
Currently, speculation surrounding KATSEYE‘s Manon and her announced hiatus has been a hot topic.
Manon was announced to be taking a hiatus in an official statement, which she quickly contradicted. Since then, alleged “internal issues” among the members have sparked speculation about the idol’s continued inclusion in KATSEYE.
This has only been worsened by Manon’s previous treatment.
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Unfortunately, there has been a history of black members of pop groups being excluded, and K-Pop has also seen similar circumstances.
DR Music, the agency behind the popular group Baby V.O.X, introduced the girl group RANIA in 2011 following a bit of pre-debut promotions.
The group saw a number of line-up changes and the loss of Teddy Riley as their producer due to “shady business.” The group also attempted an American debut.
A large amount of attention was placed on the group’s 2015 album Demonstrate, due to the line-up changes which included the addition of African-American rapper Alex Reid, who was scouted.
During initial performances of “Demonstrate,” Alex would only be on stage to perform her rap and leave shortly after.
This became one of the first signs of problems, as the group’s choreographer claimed that she refused to dance in 2017 as a commentary on her work ethic. Alex made a cryptic tweet about the situation at the time.
If these lies keep magically surfacing I'll go ahead and come out with the truth. Let it really hit the fan.
— alexandra reid (@thealexreid) January 30, 2017
Alex later shared circumstances of her time in the group, which including having to do her own hair and other ways in which she was excluded from the group’s activities, believed to be racism from the company.
Ultimately, Alex left the group in August 2017.
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Alex has openly spoken about her time in the group, and continued to be involved in K-Pop, including an appearance at KCON LA 2025.
As for Rania, the group has since rebranded to BLACKSWAN, and is facing similar mistreatment allegations towards member Fatou, who has been MIA for several months.
It has been 8 months now since Fatou has come out about the company mistreating her behind the scenes, it has been 8 months since the company has continued to sideline her and exclude her in group projects and content. Dr still to this day has not put up a statement.#FreeFatou pic.twitter.com/3athJeg4DT
— Lumina_bs⁴❤️ (@StreamRollup) February 23, 2026
While the circumstances are not exactly the same, the underlying issues of mistreatment connected to race show a possible result of Manon’s situation.
