Manon’s Katseye Hiatus Reflects Racism Black Girl Group Members Face

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anon Bannerman ending up in Katseye almost feels like fate. More than 120,000 applications auditioned for Dream Academy, the training program that formed the six-piece group. The final lineup came from 20 finalists whose journeys Netflix captured on an accompanying reality series where proving yourself — both to your peers and the fans watching at home — held the key. Casting director Michelle Kim discovered Bannerman on social media and invited her to audition — she had no prior training or professional background, but they couldn’t deny there was something about her.

Through sheer luck, destiny, or the aligning of stars, Bannerman entered into an experience that only the tiniest percentage of people understand. She was plucked from Switzerland and put on the world stage alongside Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj, Megan Skiendiel, Sophia Laforteza, and Yoonchae Jeung. It’s clear that for the group, there’s an inherent comfort as they’ve adjusted to this unconventional reality together. They’ve experienced an uptick in hate and death threats since debuting in 2024, though it would have been even more impossible to endure as soloists. Still, Bannerman faces a specific isolation as the sole Black member of Katseye. In that sense, the people who understand her experience most aren’t even in the same band.

This past weekend, HYBE and Geffen Records announced that Bannerman would be temporarily stepping away from Katseye “to focus on her health and wellbeing,” according to a statement published on Weverse. In a separate message to fans, the 23-year-old elaborated on the situation, writing, “I’m healthy, I’m okay, and I’m taking care of myself … Sometimes things unfold in ways we don’t fully control, but I’m trusting the bigger picture.” While fans have read between the lines and filled the space with speculation about whether this was an amicable decision, an emotional support group of women has formed around Bannerman. 

“We see you,” the Pussycat Dolls’ Melody Thornton wrote on Instagram, where she shared an image of Bannerman, who liked the post. During Thornton’s hardest times in her own girl group, no one said the same to her. “The one thing that I always kept in mind was, ‘You can’t be messing up. You got to keep it together because you are the Black girl. People know that, people see it, and they want to see you win so you must prevail through any adversity – whatever it looks like,’” she told Essence in 2024. “I didn’t always know if I was being seen.” At one point, she began to experience panic attacks and developed insecurities around being branded as the “weakest link” in the PCD. Still, she didn’t disclose her struggles to anyone, she said, “because I didn’t want anyone to say that I was lazy or that I was making things up.”

The statement is almost exactly what Bannerman told the Cut just a few weeks ago. “Being called lazy, especially as a Black girl, is not fair,” she said, commenting on the criticism that has followed her since Dream Academy, where she missed rehearsals due to illness. “Now I feel like I always need to put in extra work to prove something, even though I really don’t.” Bannerman only missed one date of their debut headlining tour, which wrapped in December. Over the next month, Katseye are booked to perform at three iterations of Lollapalooza ahead of their Coachella debut in April. Even if Bannerman’s leave from the group is only temporary, the optics surrounding her absence could leave a lingering mark. 

“Groups are made and every member is chosen because they have something special to bring and because all of the members together make a balance, so I think it is going to be interesting navigating without her for the time being,” Makhyli Simpson, a member of the short-lived girl group Boys World, said in a recent TikTok live. “I just hope that she is well in whatever that she decides moving forward. I know about all of the pressure that it is, especially to be the only Black girl in a group, and I just feel like nobody knows what that’s like until you’re in her shoes.” Boys World disbanded in 2024, five years after KYN Entertainment scouted all five members on social media. “We have accepted that there are some things that are out of our control,” the group said at the time. It mirrors the statement Bannerman shared.

At the end of the day, any group assembled and supported by an entertainment company gets treated much like the products they’re meant to sell. Katseye haven’t even released their debut album yet, but they’ve already been effectively positioned as walking billboards for everything from Fendi, Pandora, GAP, Glossier, and Laneige to Erewhon, State Farm, Takis, and the fast-food chain Jollibee. They’re not selling records. They’re selling an image — one that doesn’t hold without Bannerman. “People want to see diversity,” she told the Associated Press last year. “People want to see themselves represented on the TV, on billboards. And I really hope that people high up see that and see that it works, and implement that.” Although the music industry may see them as pawns and products, these women — presented with this responsibility as teenagers and young adults on Dream Academy — are still people. 

Girl groups are built on an idealized perception of unity and sisterhood that isn’t always intersectional. The people high up have never quite known what to do with Black women in these environments. As a teenager, Normani joined Fifth Harmony alongside four other girls who also auditioned as soloists on The X Factor. They finished in third place, then were promptly launched as pop’s next big thing. Normani always exuded the same natural star quality that drew Dream Academy producers to Bannerman. Her presence alone pulled attention. She was sidelined, regardless. “I didn’t get to really sing in the group. I felt like I was overlooked,” Normani told Allure in 2021. “That idea has been projected on me. Like, this is your place.” 

Normani also grappled with vitriolic racism from Fifth Harmony fans, and even had to confront racist experiences within the group: In 2019, racist posts that group member Camila Cabello wrote as a teenager resurfaced. “It was devastating that this came from a place that was supposed to be a safe haven and a sisterhood, because I knew that if the tables were turned I would defend each of them in a single heartbeat,” she told Rolling Stone in 2020. Ultimately, she said, “they didn’t know how to be there for me the way that I needed it because it wasn’t their own experience, and because when they look at me they don’t see me.” In the midst of the speculation surrounding the future of Katseye, Normani followed Bannerman on Instagram.

It’s a small act that might have led to an extended conversation behind the scenes, but the significance of visibility shouldn’t be understated. Normani and Leigh-Anne Pinnock, whose own television competition path led her to Little Mix, exchanged the same message in 2020. “I am you and you are me, I see you sis,” Normani commented on a video that detailed Pinnock’s experience with racism in the music industry. “I learned that the dream of being in the biggest girl band in the world came with its flaws and consequences — consequences such as knowing about the existent underlying racism in the creative industries,” she said at the time. Responding to a post about following Bannerman on Instagram, Pinnock wrote, “We need to protect each other.”

Pinnock, like all of the other women mentioned here, learned to live with “constantly feeling like I have to work 10 times harder and longer to mark my place in the group because my talent alone isn’t enough.” None of them should have to. The idea that Black women should simply power through, or endure mistreatment under the guise of proving themselves, is systemic. It’s a perpetual test designed for them to fail. It’s expected that they not only overextend themselves to prove their place, but also that they should feel lucky to be there — and be considered — at all. But it’s never a privilege to suffer and struggle. 

Bannerman expressed as much when she pointed out that she grew up with a well-rounded understanding of a work-life balance in Switzerland, something Americans have often rejected in favor of a relentless grind mentality. It’s that intensity that defined Berry Gordy’s Motown, which directly influenced the modern K-Pop trainee model. In 2024, JYP Entertainment founder Park Jin-young credited the hit-making label with inspiring the system. This all, in turn, led to the creation of Katseye. HYBE and Geffen touted their partnership as the first time a U.S. record label has partnered with a K-Pop company to develop a new group. It turns out they might not actually be better together.

In November, the companies launched the sale of a merch package that featured a quiz page personalized to each Katseye member. For Bannerman, one question read, “What does Manon think is her best feature?” The options were: “Her sense of humor, her selfishness, her laziness, or her quiet nature.” Even the framing of the question — what does she think about herself — encourages speculation that doesn’t reflect reality, but distorts her narrative.

Sugababes’ Keisha Buchanan can relate. In 2020, she claimed a record executive told her she was “being used as collateral” after being ousted from the girl group in 2009. When their first album without her wasn’t a success, the next best thing to do was somehow make it her fault. “Although it was not my choice to leave, it’s time to enter a new chapter in my life,” Buchanan said at the time. Pop fans have learned to live in fear of their favorite groups posting official social media statements, especially ones that include the word “hiatus” and little clarification around the circumstances at hand. “When One Direction split, that was really hard,” Bannerman told the Cut. “I don’t want our fans to go through that. I don’t want to be responsible for breaking so many hearts.” 

Hopefully history won’t repeat itself. Black girl group members shouldn’t have to keep going through this.