UK BLACK PEOPLE – The Media Industry doesn’t owe us anything.

By Dapo Oshiyemi

I read with great interest, Paterson Joseph’s recent article in the UK Guardian, titled ‘Why were the BAFTA’s so white? Because there aren’t enough black people on TV’, follow link if you want to read full article.

It did cause quite a storm but to be honest its nothing new, year after year we complain about the same old thing, I think its time black people in the UK realise that nobody owes us a seat at the table, talk less of a meal and until we understand that, we will never take advantage of the huge opportunities that we do have.

 

 

 

 

It’s their Party and they don’t have to invite us?

 

 

 

 

The truth is, film, TV and theatre are industries driven by Box office, ratings and ticket sales which equate to profits (MONEY) now in a country where there are only 4m of us out of a population of 63m, unless we magically become the dominate ethnic group in the country and can consistently turn out 20m people for a TV show or generate 50m at the Box Office, we will always be ignored – and when you talk about our talent going to America and making it, you have to realise that there are 44m African-Americans over there with spending power close to a trillion dollars, no right thinking business will ignore that,  so yes, our talent will always have a greater chance of success over there, the same way we will have a greater chance of success in countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Jamaica, Brazil to name a few.

So instead of complaining that we have not been invited to someone else’s dinner table maybe its time we start to cook our own meals- even though they may not be as big and lavish as the other, at least we will eat well and be full, instead of our current situation of hungry and complaining.

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