“You can’t enjoy the rhythm and ignore the blues”. Originally spoken by American actor and DJ Amanda Seales, these were the words a tearful Clara Amfo quoted during a deeply moving and personal speech she delivered live on air yesterday. Having been absent from her usual Monday slot, the BBC Radio 1 host began yesterday’s show with a stark four-minute address to her listeners, detailing the contradiction between the appreciation of black art versus the treatment of those who create it.

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This weekend has been a lot, this life has been a lot, we are in the middle of a pandemic and the wheels of injustice keep turning. Just some thoughts I’ve gathered, I have more but real talk I’m on deadlines for things, so don’t have time to write a full op ed style post. Honestly I, like many black people I know are mentally exhausted but just wanted to share some of my recurrent thoughts.FYI comments are off cos I’ve learned to protect my energy and I refuse to give it to the wilfully ignorant. ⁣ ⁣ DMing me to tell me that you hate racism accompanied with a holiday snap of pictures with your black friends (yes that really happened this weekend) is useless.⁣ Posting Martin Luther King quotes and other platitudes with a peace sign isn’t enough.⁣ Telling me you’re sorry and can’t believe it at this point in history, although well intentioned, sadly useless. ⁣ If you’re a non black person who has told yourself that exclusively having sex with and dating black people is a personality and therefore enough to absolve you from being racist….newsflash it’s not! ⁣ ⁣ Same goes for music fans who happily indulge in the talent and work of black people and industry people who profit off us but stay silent when shit gets real . How could I forget that guy who told me on this same app that he couldn’t be racist cos he listens to Travis Scott ⁣ ⁣ I feel like there is a small shift happening, I honestly can’t tell if it’s going to lead to permanent change due the echo chamber of social media that I pay attention to versus what is shown on the news globally. ⁣The subjugation of black people the world over is not new news to us, the institutions of white supremacy are not new to us. It seeps in to EVERYTHING and we don’t have the choice to unsee it or feel it, proverbially and violently known as the “chip on your shoulder” or “making every thing about race” I notice I always lose followers when I speak about racial injustice, who can forget the “oh blimey unfollowing” lady from a few weeks ago when I spoke of the brutal murder of Ahmuad Aubrey?? ⁣ Why do you think I made a choice to use Rihanna’s speech on my last post? Most importantly because what she said was 100% true

A post shared by Clara Amfo (@claraamfo) on May 31, 2020 at 1:44am PDT

After acknowledging the previous day’s absence, Amfo gave a “race and violence” content warning, before admitting that she had not had the mental strength to ask listeners how their weekend had been since she had spent her own weekend “angry, confused, and also stuck at the news of yet another brutalised black body”. Amfo was referring to George Floyd, an unarmed black man who on the 25th of May was suffocated to death whilst under arrest by officers of the Minneapolis Police Department.  

 

 

 

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…but because she is RIHANNA, she is beyond proud of her blackness but she is also a palatable enough black woman that I knew most white people would listen to over me. She would grab your attention, perhaps provoke more thought.⁣ ⁣ If you “follow” me, enjoy my work, aesthetic, however you process me. You must understand that I am a WHOLE BLACK PERSON. I can’t “oh blimey unfollow” myself, nor do I want to. If you are uncomfortable with what you read today, ask yourself why? If you’re not down with me, don’t announce it, just unfollow and keep it moving.⁣ ⁣ I love blackness, it is STUNNING, MAJESTIC, INSPIRING but it is also not here to serve non black people when it suits them via sports, music, hairstyles, entertainment etc, it should be respected in the workplace and shouldn’t be ignored when it’s crying out in fear of being killed.⁣ ⁣ You really want that utopian ideal of what our world could be? You want to be proudly and ACTIVELY anti racist more than fearing being called a racist? I want that for you too.⁣ ⁣ If so, then DO the work, educate yourself and others stand by us loudly, consistently, FOREVER . ⁣ Link in bio if you’re about it. ⁣ BLACKLIVESMATTER⁣ ALLBLACKLIVESMATTER A post shared by Clara Amfo (@claraamfo) on May 31, 2020 at 1:48am PDT

Responding to a call about a counterfeit $20 bill, Officer Derek Chauvin – with the help of Officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao – handcuffed and restrained Floyd to the ground by pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck. Despite the hold being reserved solely for when a suspect is actively resisting, Chauvin continued to press down on Floyd’s neck even as Floyd pleaded for his life, telling bystanders he couldn’t breathe and that the officers were going to kill him. Chauvin rejected Lane’s suggestion to roll Floyd onto his side, keeping compression on Floyd’s neck for nearly three minutes after Floyd had lost consciousness and even after paramedics had arrived on the scene. All four of the officers have since been arrested, with Chauvin now facing charges of manslaughter and murder in the second degree.

“Knowing how the world enjoys blackness and seeing what happened to George”, Amfo continued, “we black people get the feeling that people want our culture but they do not want us”. Her address yesterday coincided with ‘Blackout Tuesday’, a grassroots social media campaign started by music industry professionals Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas designed to hold to account a multi-billion dollar industry “that has profited predominantly from black art”. Before ending her speech by playing Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” (which has become an anthem for the Black Lives Matter movement) Amfo echoed the widely circulated appeal that ‘non-racism’ is not a sufficient substitute for active ‘anti-racism’. She also encouraged listeners to tune into a show dedicated to black artists that have enriched the music landscape hosted by Annie Mac, as well as another in which Seanie B and Ace spoke about their experiences as black men in the UK. Listen to the full speech below:  

“You cannot enjoy the rhythm and ignore the blues” This is incredibly powerful from @claraamfo on the death of George Floyd, racism and its effect on her own mental health. pic.twitter.com/qxHrvKfn0e — BBC Radio 1 (@BBCR1) June 2, 2020