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PRESS RELEASE: RE:IMI Launches BARRE Register Online Repository And Releases George Floyd-Inspired UK Music Industry Race/Ethnicity-Facing Report On 3rd Month Anniversary
Access this press release as a .doc file at http://bit.ly/REIMIBOTRelease
Access the report as a .pdf file at www.bitly.com/REIMIBOTUKMusic
August 25 2020
RE:IMI (Race Equality: In Music Industry), the race/ethnicity-facing strand of BritishBlackMusic.com/Black Music Congress (BBM/BMC), today formally launches the BARRE Register of race/ethnicity and racism links, and releases the 'RE:IMI Black Out Tuesday UK Music Industry Race Diversity Report', three months after the Afriphobic murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The report is primarily based on interviews with CEOs and senior executives of ten UK music industry organisations, namely AIM (Association of Independent Music), BPI (British Phonographic Industry), Help Musicians, Ivors Academy, MMF (Music Managers Forum), MPA (Music Publishers Association, MU (Musicians' Union), PPL (Phonographic Performance Ltd), PRS for Music (Performing Right Society), and UK Music, and is focused on UK's Africans (African is used to describe all people of African heritage, irrespective of antecedents) and AAME (African, Asian, Minority Ethnic) communities.
The report is the result of the UK music industry's unanimous support for the US music industry's June 2 #BlackOutTuesday and #TheShowMustBePaused initiatives and protest at the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and other Africans killed by US police.
The “exploratory conversations” between RE:IMI co-ordinator Kwaku and EDI (Equality, Diversity, Inclusion) expert Anthony Wilkes and the music organisations, centred on the organisations' race/ethnicity and anti-racism programmes, with a focus on Africans and Afriphobia, which is anti-African racism.
The conversations reveal what staff did on June 2 and the period immediately after. Some spent the time familiarising themselves with African history and racism, by reading books on African history and anti-racism, particularly Afriphobia, and discussing how to redress the structural and systemic racism within their organisations, and the music industry in general.
Priority areas include programmes to attract more staff from AAME communities, particularly Africans. Some have already developed or are in the process of developing programmes particularly to increase AAME representation across leadership teams and boards, and there are either reviews or implementations of programmes to support career development of African staff.
The report also includes an updated review of how the industry has responded since the interviews. There have been grants aimed at African creators, such as those recently offered MOBO/Help Musicians Fund and PRS Foundation's Sustaining Creativity Fund.
Additionally, the Foundation stands to gain a substantial amount from Beggars Group CEO Paul Redding's September English Channel swim crowdfunding, which will be targeted at African music creators and industry professionals.
Major companies such as Sony Music and independents such as Ditto Music, have announced funds to support a mixture of social justice and anti-racism programmes, and African creatives.
MMF has started its MMF Unite African history and culture Zoom meetings for managers. MMF and the MU have since instituted free three month membership schemes, which although aimed generally, have a focus on attracting African members.
BPI's equality training programme next month for its and AIM members is Let's Talk About Race, which is focused on race/ethnicity and related matters.
Some organisations, such as PPL have publicly stated their responses to calls to action for the industry by the Black Music Coalition, a new organisation focused on the development of African music executives, and to the Women in CTRL diversity pledge, which makes demands for better representation of women and African women in its 'A Seat At The Table' report.
RE:IMI and BBM/BMC support the Women In CTRL diversity pledge, and are co-signatories to the #NoSilenceInMusic campaign, which has garnered hundreds of music creators and industry personnel in support of an anti-discrimination focus, which includes Afriphobia, Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
Recent increases in race/ethnicity and gender representations include the appointment of two industryites of African heritage, Mulika Sannie and Kwame Kwaten, as trustees of the BRIT Trust, in an “ongoing refresh at the BRIT Awards’ funded charity”.
RE:IMI started some five years ago, when genre and ethnicity issues within the music industry generally, and more specifically the lack of black music representation in the BRIT Awards, led to the #BritsSoWhite campaign. Its aim was to highlight race/ethnicity deficits and racism, and support the music industry in addressing them. After some inactivity, it was revived in June, following the music industry's uncharacteristically forthright display of solidarity and allyship with with African communities, following the death of George Floyd.
”Blatant Afriphobia led to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and many others, and any attempt to address this endemic problem must include African-focused initiatives” says Kwaku.
Adds Kwaku: “Floyd's unfortunate murder has left a legacy, which is the music industry's ability to now speak candidly about racism, particularly Afriphobia, and the structural inequalities that impact disproportionately on Africans and people from marginalised communities.”
Also being revived by BBM/BMC is the BAAR (British Artists Against Racism) strand. “We are however quietly recruiting artists who are prepared to wear their anti-racism stance on their sleeve,” adds Kwaku.
The purpose of the RE:IMI report says Kwaku, is to keep the respondents' plans and commitments alive; and for stakeholders, including music fans, civil society organisations, and African communities, to be aware of what the music industry is doing, now that Floyd's death has ushered in an atmosphere for frank talking about racism and Afriphobia.
RE:IMI and African identity advocacy group TAOBQ (The African Or Black Question) officially launch today the BARRE Register. It's an online repository containing information on race/ethnicity, racism and Afriphobia within the music and creative industries, and links to documents to support HR (Human Resources) departments, including what is hoped will be a growing collection highlighting EDI best practice to help jump start other industry organisations and companies in developing proven race/ethnicity-facing diversity programmes.
Ends
Kwaku
BBM/BMC
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