People complaining about Diversity’s dance performance on Britain’s Got Talent is exactly why we needed it on mainstream UK television.
With 10,000+ complaints, dance group Diversity highlighted exactly why their performance was needed on primetime TV.
10,000 people have complained about Diversity’s Britain’s Got Talent performance. It attracted the second-highest number of complaints to the broadcasting regulator in the last decade.
That’s more than 10,000 people outraged at the ‘politicisation’ of weekend telly. This was because the dance told the story of the death of George Floyd in the second half. ‘The Great Realisation’ by poet TomFoolery was used to narrate the first half. This poem could also be viewed as political, but a BLM-themed performance was sure to trump it.
I am fuming about this — I do my best to be anti-racist, and when I do that, I never consider I’m sharing a political message. Diversity weren’t either: they were sharing their truth through their form of art.
My thoughts on why those people are complaining?
In the UK, we’re not able to see a large group of Black people protest their treatment at the hands of white people.
In the UK, we’re not able to take this as a prompt for us to be more anti-racist.
In the UK, we think racism doesn’t exist — so what the Hell is a group doing, displaying it on prime time TV for all to see?!
Is there some degree of debate around the Black Lives Matter movement’s actions? Yes, but there’s no evidence the majority of those involved are anything but peaceful.
Diversity’s performance wasn’t even about BLM, it was about systemic racism.
That act was about the fight that Black people face in their lives every day.
The complaints that the act was too political fascinates me. I’m wondering how those people who complained were not also incensed by SOS From The Kids. This choir begged for sharing adults to protect the next generation. Climate change is a political issue too, but clearly it’s not as bothersome as anti-racism.
The performance was poignant and ground-breaking, but did it feel controversially political?
No. It felt necessary.
And those complaints? All they serve to do is highlight just how necessary this presentation was. If we were not still a nation steeped in racism, we’d not have complained in the droves that we did.
We need anti-racist ideals rammed down our throats on primetime telly because we’re just not getting it.
