David Whitely, widely known as DJ Sideman on 1xtra, has officially quit his position at the National broadcasting station. The news follows BBC allowing a racial slur on the radio, specifically the use of the N word in a recent news report.
The disgusting racial slur was dropped during a BBC report that described a recent racist attack in Bristol. In spite of the awful slur provoking over 18,600 rightful complaints from the public, the BBC initially defended the use of the word.
Sideman announced the news of his departure on the 8th of August via social media. Sharing a poignant post to Instagram entitled ‘I can’t look the other way’, Sideman explains his reasoning behind leaving BBC 1xtra.
Sideman explains in the Instagram video that he has “thought long and hard about what I’m about to say and what it means” and “on this occasion I just don’t think that I can look the other way.” When speaking on the systematic racism present in the media and society as a whole, Sideman says “that there will need to be a lot of learning and tearing down of certain building blocks of our society that took a long time to build up.”
Continuing his speech on the pressing matter, Sideman states“the BBC sanctioning the N-word on national television by a white person is something I cannot work with.” Sideman’s Instagram video can be watched in full here.
Generating a whopping 310,000 views and 5,829 comments, Sideman’s post was met with a strong show of support from the public. Sideman’s announcement has also garnered support from various industry players.
Eddie Nestor, esteemed actor turned Radio DJ, implied that he was drafting an open letter to the BBC following the incident. Fellow Radio DJ Charlie Sloth also spoke on Sideman’s departure, saying “I admire and respect you David! Well done for standing up for what you believe is right! You’re a King!! This world needs people like you!”
Disappointedly, the BBC’s initial treatment of this sensitive incident was wholly inadequate. In their first official statement, there was no accountability taken for the use of racist vocabulary. A spokesperson for Radio 1xtra stated “Sideman is an incredibly talented DJ. Obviously we are disappointed that he has taken this decision. We absolutely wish him well for the future. The door is always open for future projects.”
Welp! It only took 19,000 complaints, serious Twitter backlash and a member of BBC staff quitting his job!!! ….But we finally got what we should have had in the first place…. An apology..https://t.co/KeRuQxeEsS
— London Hughes (@TheLondonHughes) August 9, 2020
Following further complaints, the BBC has now apologised for their initial defence of using the word – a word that should not be used, no matter the context. Tony Hall, Director General of the BBC, released the following statement in an email to staff: “The BBC now accepts that we should have taken a different approach at the time of broadcast and we are very sorry for that. We will now be strengthening our guidance on offensive language across our output.”
Hall concluded the apology with the promise to action positive changes. Hall stated “Every organisation should be able to acknowledge when it has made a mistake. We made one here. It is important for us to listen – and also to learn.”
