[Crimson Dynamo]

'It's interesting to look at the audience and not see any black people there': Sir
Lenny Henry questions lack of diversity at Glastonbury and says he is 'always
surprised' to see so few black and Asian faces in festival crowds

• British "comic" Lenny Henry has questioned the lack of diversity in audiences at British festivals
• He singled out Glastonbury, saying he is 'interested' by the absence of BAME faces in the crowd
• Sir Lenny shot to fame as the first black performer on the controversial Black And White Minstrel Show
• It comes after Glastonbury organisers called Stormzy's 2019 headline performance 'a little bit late maybe'

'It's interesting to watch Glastonbury and look at the audience and not see
any black people there.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-message-field

[Oliver_W]

... okay?

You can't force people to buy tickets and attend something they don't want to.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

... okay?

You can't force people to buy tickets and attend something they don't want to.

tbf just from reading what's in the opening post, it seems like he's just curious to know why that is

[Alf]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

tbf just from reading what's in the opening post, it seems like he's just curious to know why that is

My guess would be that if people arne't in attendance then they probably didn't buy a ticket to attend. Crazy thought, I know! but that's all I can come up with.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Alf

My guess would be that if people arne't in attendance then they probably didn't buy a ticket to attend. Crazy thought, I know! but that's all I can come up with.

[Mystic Mock]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

tbf just from reading what's in the opening post, it seems like he's just curious to know why that is

Maybe younger generation black people aren't into Rock Music unfortunately.

[arista]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

... okay?

You can't force people to buy tickets and attend something they don't want to.

Sold Out

[bots]

lets force people to attend it to get some diversity, that would go down well

[GoldHeart]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

lets force people to attend it to get some diversity, that would go down well

I doubt that what he means

[Crimson Dynamo]

Originally Posted by GoldHeart

I doubt that what he means

just what does he mean?

[rusticgal]

Originally Posted by GoldHeart

I doubt that what he means

Knowing Lenny Henry…it’s exactly what he meant.

[Crimson Dynamo]

it could be (heaven forbid) that the vast majority of people in the UK are white and also that festivals where the audience is mainly black and Asian are not on TV?

[arista]

Of course he would say that.


I wish he would do a
Comedy Show

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by arista

Of course he would say that.


I wish he would do a
Comedy Show

See, now I wish he wasn't funny, so I could make a facetious crack about having to wait decades for any comedy shows from him.

[rusticgal]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

See, now I wish he wasn't funny, so I could make a facetious crack about having to wait decades for any comedy shows from him.

I thought the only person that found Lenny Henry funny was…Lenny Henry

[user104658]

It's the illusion of representation I think. Proportionately, if everyone at random was assigned tickets to attend, fewer than 1 in 50 would be black because that's just the maths of population demographics in the UK. There'd also be twice as many Asian people in the crowd as black people.

There's two possible explanations here for why people don't think that accurately respresents the population;

1) They're from London which has a (much) higher percentage of non-white people than the rUK.

2) They think the UK has the same or similar demographics to the US (which we don't).


But yeah the basic maths is, if 1 in 50 faces in the crowd was a black person, then the festival was just as attractive to black people as white people. If 10% of the crowd is black people then it was FAR more attractive to that demographic.

[Crimson Dynamo]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

It's the illusion of representation I think. Proportionately, if everyone at random was assigned tickets to attend, fewer than 1 in 50 would be black because that's just the maths of population demographics in the UK. There'd also be twice as many Asian people in the crowd as black people.

There's two possible explanations here for why people don't think that accurately respresents the population;

1) They're from London which has a (much) higher percentage of non-white people than the rUK.

2) They think the UK has the same or similar demographics to the US (which we don't).


But yeah the basic maths is, if 1 in 50 faces in the crowd was a black person, then the festival was just as attractive to black people as white people. If 10% of the crowd is black people then it was FAR more attractive to that demographic.

If you watch the average ad break on TV you would be forgiven for thinking it was a 50:50 ratio

[Redway]

If certain people don’t want to go to the festival they don’t want to go. No-one’s stopping anyone.

[user104658]

The GOAL of having a world where the colour of peoples skin is irrelevant and everyone can be “colour blind” is ultimately a positive one, but to suggest that we’re anywhere near that in todays world and can just sort of choose to pretend that race is not an issue is … questionable… and a privileged thing to be able to do.

It sort of makes me think of wealthy people saying “money doesn’t matter to me!”

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

The GOAL of having a world where the colour of peoples skin is irrelevant and everyone can be “colour blind” is ultimately a positive one, but to suggest that we’re anywhere near that in todays world and can just sort of choose to pretend that race is not an issue is … questionable… and a privileged thing to be able to do.

It sort of makes me think of wealthy people saying “money doesn’t matter to me!”

Well, class/wealth is more influential over the paths someone can follow in life, than the amount of pigment they have in their skin. Ziggy is obviously well off, and being the son of someone like Jacob Marley would pretty much set anyone up for life, and give them built-in media careers.

[Redway]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

The GOAL of having a world where the colour of peoples skin is irrelevant and everyone can be “colour blind” is ultimately a positive one, but to suggest that we’re anywhere near that in todays world and can just sort of choose to pretend that race is not an issue is … questionable… and a privileged thing to be able to do.

It sort of makes me think of wealthy people saying “money doesn’t matter to me!”

That’s why I was skeptic when I saw who made this thread (LT isn’t exactly known for respecting people who aren’t skin-toned just like him, but you get roasted and called entitled every time you call him out on his nonsense). But where Glastonbury’s concerned skin colour’s neither here nor there. I’m going to guess that the average black person would rather attend a(n) Africa Oye/Notting-Hill motive and that’s why there’s more obvious black attraction in those circles but seriously, Glastonbury’s open to anyone. The reason less black people are there is probably because less black people (compared to other races) are into indie pop and all the other stuff that tends to get played there. As a game of prerogative that’s more-than fair. Either way no-one’s excluding anyone from going anywhere. It’s just not up the league-park of a sizeable demographic of people who just happen to be black and unless someone can explain how Glastonbury sets out to racially-exclude people that should really be the end of it. Not everything’s about the colour of someone’s skin.

[Redway]

If Kanye, Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Burna Boy turned up at Glastonbury you’d see more black faces (unsurprisingly). But only about 15 to 20% of black Brits (if that) like the music that Glastonbury tends to stan enough to actually pay for a ticket and camp out in the middle of Gloucestershire (or wherever it is) for the best part of a week just for the sake of that.

I don’t know why people can’t just leave it there instead of looking for token racism everywhere. It ain’t that deep at all.

[Zizu]

Originally Posted by Redway

If Kanye, Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Burna Boy turned up at Glastonbury you’d see more black faces (unsurprisingly). But only about 15 to 20% of black Brits (if that) like the music that Glastonbury tends to stan enough to actually pay for a ticket and camp out in the middle of Gloucestershire (or wherever it is) for the best part of a week just for the sake of that.

I don’t know why people can’t just leave it there instead of looking for token racism everywhere. It ain’t that deep at all.

Burna Boy ( no idea who that is ) performed with the fabulous Yung Blud last night at Glasto ...





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Mystic Mock]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

The GOAL of having a world where the colour of peoples skin is irrelevant and everyone can be “colour blind” is ultimately a positive one, but to suggest that we’re anywhere near that in todays world and can just sort of choose to pretend that race is not an issue is … questionable… and a privileged thing to be able to do.

It sort of makes me think of wealthy people saying “money doesn’t matter to me!”

I agree it's impossible to ignore racial issues entirely.

However I do think that Lenny Henry might be overly concerned about racial issues if black people choose to not go to a venue.

[bots]

the problem with viewing everyone the same is that it attempts to homogenise people, where their origins actually form a large part of who they are. People are all different, and thank goodness they are