Every once in a blue moon, Twitter proves itself educational. On Monday, it offered a sound geography lesson. 

Boy band SB19, a Filippino pop group managed by a Korean entertainment company, is currently on a nationwide tour. The boy band tweeted out on Saturday as they arrived at the destination of their first show: Negros Island.

“Hello, Negros! We are now in your zone! We are already excited about what will happen on our first stop for our nationwide tour.”

A couple of Twitter users caught the tweet and believed Negros was being used as a derogatory term.

But former Travel Noire editor Philip Lewis helped put an end to everyone's suspicions when he confirmed Negros is actually an island in the Philippines and the musical group was, in fact, not referring to Black people. 

In the midst of the confusion, the group’s official translation team also tweeted about the island, letting their fans know that the boys are respectful and care about their fans. 

After taking a look at a map, a cyber sigh of relief was let out. 

But then it got weird again…

Negros is one of the Visayan Islands of central Philippines, according to Britannica. It’s the fourth largest island in the Philippines with a land area of over 5,100 square miles. It’s a large producer of sugar and “one of the wealthiest and most politically influential regions in the nation.” Negros Island Region (NIR) is divided into two provinces, Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental.


The island was originally called Buglas and was inhabited by the Ati people. When Spaniards came across the island and colonized it in 1565, they renamed it Negros because they saw dark-skinned people living on the land. In 1734 the island became a military district. A mountain range runs through the island, including the active volcano Mount Canlaon. The island's natural beauty is also made of coral gardens, beaches and forests, according to Lonely Planet. 

According to the band’s social media accounts, their show on the island was very successful. They posted a number of photos from the show, thanking their fans for coming out. 

While SB19 was simply arriving on an oddly named island, a number of artists' past racism has come to light lately. 

Camila Cabello’s old Tumblr posts resurfaced last week, exposing the former Fifth Harmony member’s prejudice. The “Señorita” singer released an apology, saying she was “uneducated” and “ignorant” when she posted those comments, as Blavity previously reported. 

Post Malone also came under fire recently when an old Vine video resurfaced, in which the “White Iverson” rapper is heard saying "n***a," as Billboard reported. The video was deleted by Posty but reposted as of late to the hip-hop forum KanyeToThe. The video is allegedly from two years ago. 

K-PopNegros IslandPhilippinesSB19