UK Awards Season’s performative diversity holds up a mirror to UK society

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 19: (L-R) Hauschka, Frank Petzold, Viktor Prasil, Christian M Goldbeck, Lisy Christl, Malte Grunert, Ian Stokell, Sven Budelmann, Albrecht Schuch, Lesley Paterson and James Friend accept the Best Film Award for 'All Quiet on the Western Front' during the 2023 EE British Academy Film Awards, held at the Royal Festival Hall on February 19, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart Wilson/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA)

So, it’s the day after the BAFTA Film Awards, and if you follow this sort of thing you may be aware that every winner last night had one thing in common - they were all white. 26 awards and every single person who took one home was white. 2 days previous to the BAFTA’s were the National Comedy Awards, where a grand total of 5 people of colour were nominated and 0 took home any awards. (This is excluding the Impact on Comedy Award, which is not part of the 10 categories listed on their website, which this year went to Mo Gilligan.) The Brit Awards earlier this month featured 13 categories, 2 went to a person of colour - Beyoncé. (Again, not including the rising star award which isn’t listed as part of the main 13 categories, and this year went to Flo)

I want to be very clear about something - I am not complaining that white people are being awarded. Not at all, Banshees of Inisherin is one of my favourite films of the last year, I’m going to be losing my voice at a Harry Styles show later this year, and Lee Mack is hands down one of the funniest men in the country. Them winning is not the issue at all.

The issue to me is inviting a long list of guests from the Black community, and from other diaspora’s in the global majority, so that they can walk the carpet, fill up the audience and make you look good, when you have absolutely no plans to actually celebrate them. It is performative. It is creating an illusion of equality that simply isn’t the reality. When a white kid from Manchester is winning best Hip Hop artist over people like Stormzy and Dave, or people like Wesley Joseph and Little Simz who weren’t even nominated, we have to start questioning whether simply being in the room is representation or not.

Because who is good for? These awards change lives - EE Rising Star literally propels careers forward and changes trajectories, and it’s going to an actress (Emma Mackey) who actually isn’t rising, she’s already been a lead character in one of the biggest shows of the last 5 years, she’s already working with people like Ridley Scott, Kenneth Branagh, Greta Gerwig and Frances O’Connor. Her career trajectory didn’t need this. Daryl McCormack, Sheila Atim, Naomi Ackie however, they’ve each had one stand out role and this win would have been huge for their careers. Being in the room makes BAFTA look good for sure, what a diverse group of nominees, but it’s performative. It’s something that is done to increase their societal image rather than because of their devotion to the belief that representation actually matters.

EE Rising Star of course is the one category voted for by the public so we can’t place that on their shoulders. But the other 25 categories is down to them and they decided that not one single creative from the global majority was worthy of a win. Not one. Not Angela Bassett, not the most recent inductee into Club EGOT Viola Davis, not Michelle Yeoh, not Danielle Deadwyler. Every single one of them was in the room, not one of them a winner.

And I’m not surprised. Not even slightly. Because this is Britains Brand of Systemic Racism. They paint a picture on the surface to try and disguise the pillars of white supremacy holding the whole thing up, and if you look beyond the picture and try to draw attention to it, you’re shut down. It’s like this is the Wizard of Oz and equality and inclusion is the image being projected, and it’s all fine so long as you never look behind the curtain. How can it possibly be racist, did we not see how many people of colour were there?

How can it possibly be lacking diversity, didn’t we see Lizzo taking to the stage? Didn’t we see Stormzy’s performance? Didn’t we see, didn’t we see, didn’t we see…that the Prime Minister and a fair few of his cabinet are Black or brown? No, don’t mention the riot in Liverpool, that’s not the real Britain, the real Britain has grown into a place where a Black man hosted a music awards and it wasn’t the MOBOs. No, don’t mention that far right extremism is the biggest extremist threat to school children, that’s not the real Britain. No, don’t mention that Black women appearing on TV to speak about race are having execution threats put through their letterboxes, that’s not the real Britain. No, don’t mention the man that threw a petrol bomb into a migrant holding facility with the aim of wiping out muslim children, that’s not the real Britain.

People often argue that pop culture doesn’t matter, that there are bigger things going on, but I say that’s narrow minded. Pop culture is pop culture because it matters to people. It is literally popular culture. It reflects back to us ideas that are popular, trends that are popular, beliefs that are popular. So when our awards shows are saying en-masse you can come in, but don’t expect more than that, when they’re saying pull up a seat at the table but don’t expect to eat, what does that tell us about what we can expect from UK society overall?

It tells us, the change we thought we were seeing in 2021 and 2022, wasn’t actually change at all. It was people realising that there were cracks in the facade that needed painting over. It wasn’t deep rooted, systemic change. It wasn’t a foundational restoration, it was cosmetic. And whilst there are some areas making change in their operations - PR for example, I don’t believe that a grassroots platform like us would have been invited to work a media line at the BAFTAs in 2020 or earlier - they are still in the minority. And we should be making noise about that, absolutely, but whilst we’re making noise about BAFTA and Brits and National Comedy Awards and whatever other awarding body you want to name, let us not forget. They are small pieces in the bigger puzzle of national life, so let’s not get too caught up in simply pointing out the obvious winners lists, they are simply a symptom of the problem.