The onus is on white people to change things for those of us working behind the scenes, but Black creators also hold sway
In the eight years I’ve worked in the music industry, career highs have been offset by instances of racism. I’ve often been confused with other Black people who work in the industry at events, meetings and panels – at a gig one evening, it happened three separate times.
For the first part of my career, I worked in the independent sector, which is not known for its diversity. My isolation as one of the few Black people working in this area was often explained away by my white counterparts: I’ve been told that Black people just don’t listen to alternative music, but this doesn’t explain why white people are overrepresented when working in Black music. When I am asked about my perspectives, I’m often then required to do the heavy lifting, as though structural racism is a problem that Black people should fix rather than the white perpetrators of it. When I was starting out in the industry – younger, more insecure about my race and attempting to get my bearings in a sea of white faces, my attempts to assimilate were often overwhelmed by a sense of otherness.
Michelle Kambasha works in the music industry