[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

[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?

[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.

[arista]

Of course he would say that.


I wish he would do a
Comedy Show

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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 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

[rusticgal]

Originally Posted by GoldHeart

I doubt that what he means

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

[GoldHeart]

Originally Posted by rusticgal

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

What's that suppose to mean

[rusticgal]

Originally Posted by GoldHeart

What's that suppose to mean

It meant that the context of his message was exactly what you thought it didn’t mean….he was pointing out the lack of diversity which is something he has always at any opportunity pointed out.
But it’s a ridiculous statement being that ANYONE can buy tickets….

It’s just Lenny Henry trying to be clever and spark a debate….

[Cherie]

Sir Lenny Henry's comments about a lack of diversity at Glastonbury Festival has been called out by Bob Marley's son, Ziggy.

The 63-year-old actor and comedian had said that you won't "see any black people" at Worthy Farm and that he is "always surprised by the lack of black and brown faces at festivals" and that this was "still very much a dominant culture thing."

Speaking to TalkTV’s The News Desk tonight, 53-year-old musician Ziggy has challenged that view.

Ziggy said: "I've stopped looking at skin colour. You know, I don't really focus on that anymore. We look at humanity. We're all human beings."

He went on to add: " So, I don't really focus on the colour of people's skin."


https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/...mpaign=organic

[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!”

[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

[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.

[Swan]

The class debate rather than colour plays a part here. How much of Glastonbury is made up of middle class white kids? Probably a huge percentage.

Also, it's all about taste, maybe a lot of black people just don't like the music. I mean, a lot of it is sh1t. Glastonbury has always been pretty overrated imo.

Lenny is probably just trying to stay in the public eye, anything 'race' right now will do that.