“There isn’t going to be any music for the next hour and a half. We’re going to talk about a topic that is very close to our hearts.”
The Black Lives Matter activist movement has proved groundbreaking in the US in terms of shining the spotlight on issues of racial inequality and police brutality, and it’s currently in the process of being exported over to the UK. It was the topic of a special roundtable discussion over the weekend brought together by live-streaming leaders Boiler Room .
“Boiler Room wouldn't be what it is without Black Britishness and Black music,” Boiler Room’s Errol Anderson said early on in the discussion, moderating a panel including a range of musicians and artists, taking place at London’s Black Cultural Archives . “There is a very stark difference between what has been happening in the US and what is happening here.”
Deep-diving into the topic of “Black Britishness,” particularly from a musical and artistic perspective, one of the main outcomes from the panel was the assertion that racism in Britain is often expressed in a quieter, more “covert” and “passive-aggressive” way than the discrimination under the spotlight in the US at the moment, though with equal potential to be damaging.
Watch a recording of the Boiler Room X Black Lives Matter panel discussion from the weekend over at the Boiler Room website .
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