Music industry executives have signed an open letter addressing to the record label heads in order to fight the racism in the industry and also to stop using the word ‘urban’ to describe and categorize music. Puza Snighda reports.
The Black Music Coalition, The Show Must Be Paused UK, as well as staff from Warner, Universal, Atlantic, Columbia, Sony and Ministry of Sound all together signed the open letter on 9th of June and was sent to all three major record companies, in addition to the likes of Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Live Nation, BMG, Vevo and others.
The open letter comes following as protests continue worldwide against the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police.
The letter reads: “The music industry has long profited from the rich and varied culture of Black people for many generations but overall, we feel it has failed to acknowledge the structural and systematic racism affecting the very same Black community and so effectively, enjoying the rhythm and ignoring the blues,”
“Your public statements of support throughout the recent times were impassioned and we appreciated them, but we now want to drive forward tangible changes, giving power to that show of support.”
The letter includes five request and those are:
- Mandatory anti-racism and unconscious bias training for all non-Black staff.
- Setting aside an amount of money each year to support Black organizations and projects.
- Career development opportunities for black staff and addressing the lack of Black staff in senior positions.
- Replacing the term ‘urban music’ with ‘Black music’,
- Establishing a task force that reviews the company’s diversity and equality goals.
Republic Records and Milk & Honey announced they will remove the word ‘urban’ from their verbiage.