“White Saviour” images in front of the camera and (lack of) diversity behind it

OK for the 1,456^th time – DIVERSITY BEHIND THE CAMERA MATTERS!!!

Is that really so difficult to understand?

I am going to keep this blog post short because it is so obvious I am surprised I even have to write it

Unless you have been living under a rock you will have heard about the recent argument over Comic Relief and Stacey Dooley, with David Lammy MP accusing it of perpetuating “white savior” imagery.

Again for the sake of brevity I will not get into the specifics of David Lammy’s argument but suffice to say I think most people would agree that some of the imagery around Comic Relief and Red Nose Day are “problematic”.

So what is the solution?

David Lammy has come up with a few possible solution including; the suggestion of a possible comedian from Kenya the TV extravaganza could use in the future, using different imagery, and wanting “African people to speak for themselves, not UK celebs acting as tour guides.”

Even if all these things were implemented and Comic Relief became a bastion of positive imagery of African self-empowerment tackling its own problems, this would really be just another case of “whack-a-mole”. 

If you “solved” Comic Relief today there will be new issues tomorrow on another programme of how Africans and people of colour people are represented.

The real issue is that there is real lack of ethnic diversity with regards to the people in senior positions BEHIND the camera. A lack of diversity of the poeple responsible for the editorial decisions which are made and the images that are used.

In September 2018 the BBC announced the appointment of Peter Davey as the new showrunner for Red Nose Day. It then went on to announce the top people he will be working with: “He will work closely with Ben Caudell, BBC Studios Comedy Executive Producer, Colin Hopkins, Executive Producer and Mel Crawford, Head of Creative - Red Nose Day and Comic Relief. Richard Curtis, co-founder and vice-chair of Comic Relief, continues in his role as Executive Producer.”

Everybody mentioned in the press release are white.

Let us imagine for one second a major television event to raise money to combat breast or cervical cancer and it did not have a single woman on its most senior editorial team. If such a television event came under criticism for how it represented women the answer would not be to get more, or different, women celebrities IN FRONT of the camera. It would be to examine who is making these editorial decisions in the first place. 

Agree or disagree with David Lammy MP I commend the fact that he has raised a serious and troubling issue.

However there really is only one long term solution and that is to increase diversity behind the camera.

If you want better representation of disabled people on screen, please employ some disabled people behind the camera to have real editorial input on how they are represented.

If you want better representation of women on screen, please employ some women behind the camera to have real editorial input on how they are represented.

If you want better representation of Africans and people of colour on screen, please employ some Africans and people of colour behind the camera to have real editorial input on how they are represented.

I am now going to launch my own charity appeal:

Please give generously to the “Marcus Ryder Relief” its aim is to stop television execs shouting at their computer screen “DIVERSITY BEHIND THE CAMERA MATTERS!”

Thank you