Media News: Actor David Oyelowo Says UK Lags Behind South Africa In Representation Of Black Actors

 “That’s why I had to move out. I wasn’t represented on the screen"

- David Oyelowo, Huffington post

In the news this week actor David Oyelow said the UK has a lack of knowledge of Black History & Culture and this is why he left the UK.

How many times have Black Actors or Artists said the same thing?The fact this issue comes up again and again just proves how true it actually is...

When it comes to the arts in the UK a lot of those responsible for the representation of Black Actors, Musicians or Artists have no idea how to nurture, market or promote Black talent without heavily relying on Black stereotypes...Take the E4 show 'Youngers' for example...if this is not a show about Black UK stereotypes then I don't know what is!

I covered this topic briefly for my University dissertation and the conclusion I had then (2009) remains the same now: The UK entertainment business is still no where near as developed as the rest of the world.

In the UK music industry, for example, we're heavily focused on Rock & Pop music as record label heads, A&R men etc are mainly from a time where Rock and Pop were the dominant genres on the UK scene therefore, this is what they specialize in and influence audiences to respond to regardless of what the artist is really about. 
I am not saying media execs overall are not up with the times but I am saying that as far as Black talent is concerned, the UK entertainment industry is STILL in the teething phases! This could be the main reason why a lot of Black British talent move to the US as they have no time to wait for the teething phases to be over. They will go where they feel they can be positively represented in a well developed industry and business.

That's my two pence on that....what do you think?

Read the whole article here.

Shay x