Last Sunday night, at the first annual YouTube Music Video Awards, Korean pop girl group Girls’ Generation won Video of the Year award, winning against popular artist, such as Lady Gaga, Demi Lovato, One Direction, and Justin Bieber.

The winner of this award was based on votes, views, shares, likes, and comments. In votes, Girls’ Generation won with over 3 million votes, beating the other artists by a few million. The girls were very grateful for the win and expressed their gratitude to the fans on their social media accounts.

The win was very surprising, therefore bringing a large response from the American audience. The win was completely fair, but the fans of the other nominees didn’t think it so. Fans of the other nominees were angry, tweeting Girls’ Generation with racist tweets.

The backlash from these fans was unreasonable because the win was fair; YouTube is an international website that can be accessed from anywhere around the world. So why is it “unfair” for an Asian act to win an award?

Most claim that Girls’ Generation is a group of “nobodies,” but they could possibly be considered the most famous female group out now. The amount of album and single sales they have is incredible, with more than 5 million physical albums and more than 40 million singles sold. They have sold out countless concerts and they have a huge fan base that consists of people from around the world. The girls have performed on American talk shows The Late Show With David Letterman and Live With Kelly and Michael. Girls’ Generation have sold out countless shows, they’ve even preformed at Madison Square Garden.

Girls’ Generation’s win will bring them under the radar of the American audience. Various media outlets took note of this reaction and highlighted it, most of them showing their disapproval of this type of behavior.