To ask if there's something I'm missing about the allegedly "controversial" Diversity performance

[GlummyMcGlummerson]

Diversity performed on Britain's Got Talent, a performance which incorporated a message about BLM. Their performance, as usual, was incredible and sent out some great messages. The video is below.

It's had 10,000 complaints. Why?! am I missing something? Did someone's nipple pop out or something? What is the basis of people's complaints? The only reason I can think is that some people (probably because they're part of the problem) don't like it when others point out that there's racism in the world? Boo hoo to them

I fail to see what’s so controversial about it??

I think there would not be complaints of they had not done the recreation of George Floyd's murder. All for using dance to tell a story but this seems too literal. Also don't see the problem with using a platform like this for an important message. I think if just that element had not been included there would not have been the complaints at all. Perhaps it iz a testament though to it being so provoking that it has inspired such feeling and conversation, I just hope that diversity are not negatively impacted themselves.

I’ve seen the performance and found it very moving. It’s a commentary on some events (COVID, BLM) from an extraordinary year.

The message from the piece is ultimately really positive- that people come together and make the world a better place. The sad thing is that all the people complaining show they don’t want to come together and make the world a better place.

Some of the posters on this thread demonstrate exactly why Ashley Banjo felt the need to share this earlier this week.

@nicky7654

Floyd was a vile dangerous man who help a knife to a pregnant womans neck. He deserved what he received. Why the hell he is being made a martyr is beyond me. It is not ok to label people as racists for hating violent gangs who rape/Rob people. The majority are from black gangs who carry weapons and target innocent people. Now racism in the work place is wrong bit it is rare and going round protesting and destroying property to make a point just makes you look like low intelligent trouble makers.

So it's ok for individual police officers to act as judge, jury and executioner in a democratic country that has a working criminal justice system?

Oh and racism in the workplace or anywhere else isn't rare but you aren't black so you wouldn't know that.

I think it's fantastic that they've done this. They haven't made it up, it's real and as a mostly black dance crew I don't blame them at all for doing it. Yes it might be in America not here but it shouldn't be happening at all!

@nicky7654

Floyd was a vile dangerous man who help a knife to a pregnant womans neck. He deserved what he received. Why the hell he is being made a martyr is beyond me. It is not ok to label people as racists for hating violent gangs who rape/Rob people. The majority are from black gangs who carry weapons and target innocent people. Now racism in the work place is wrong bit it is rare and going round protesting and destroying property to make a point just makes you look like low intelligent trouble makers.

Ah, so if someone has previously commited a crime its perfectly okay for a group of police officers to slowly and painfully murder them.

That makes it perfectly fine the

What exactly is the right time, place and platform to protest about systemic and deadly racism?

Also, saying racism is rare in the work place is just as wrong as saying sexism is rare in the work place.

The only thing about the BGT performance is that by the Sunday morning there were about 1500 complaints. It then made the press and boom by Thursday, 5 days later it’s 10,000. Jumping on the bandwagon.

Nicky7654, it’s disgraceful to say he got what he deserved. No one deserves what happened to George Flloyd.

Oh and a couple of years ago, there were finalists who did shadow dancing and their story was based on the war. No one complained about that.

I watched it and thought good for them for using such a mainstream platform to lend support to Black Lives Matter and to portray events in such a powerful and accessible way. It really makes me sad that people are complaining. If it made people feel uncomfortable, good, that is the point.

I only watched it yesterday.
It made a bland show interesting. Diversity are at the top of their game.
We are in 2020 and racism is still amongst us. That's why it was uncomfortable. And it's a social issue that is rightly being addressed.
Was this the right platform? 100%. How many watch BGT? It reached so many people.
And no apologies for ruining it for those of you who wanted a lovely light hearted, kid singing, comedic evening after this year of utter shit. Black people are being murdered every year because they are black. Black people are judged and treated differently by some of society because they are black. It's a fucking disgrace. And the more that this message is put out there, the more uncomfortable it makes people feel, the more awareness it creates until this behaviour is irradiated and marginalised, the better.
Well done to AB and Diversity and the producers of BGT. 10k complaints. Who gives a shit. They are the minority and they won't win.

@nicky7654 You're utterly disgusting

Good on Diversity. Called a lot of racists out and reaching for their phones to complain. 10,000 racists and counting.

Oh and @nicky7654 you are part of the problem. You seek to justify the murder of a man at the hands of people who profess to protect and to serve. He was murdered because he was black. His previous misdemeanours (and I have no idea whether or not they are true) were totally irrelevant. You need to be called out. You're vile.

@ShebaShimmyShake

What exactly is the right time, place and platform to protest about systemic and deadly racism?

This ^

I don’t watch BGT but I watched the performance afterwards and thought it was very well done. I was surprised by the number of complaints, I read Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code and can’t see that it would be a breach, interested to see what Ofcom says. I find it particularly sad that Diversity have received lots of hateful messages as a result of raising an important issue.

OP thank you for posting this. I feel the exact same as you. I have no objection to the dance and feel it was important and relevant. The complaints have been stirred up by tabloids and it’s very disappointing.

His crime was in 1997. He served time in prison for his part in an armed robbery. There is no evidence any pregnant woman was a victim that is an internet lie and false pictures circulated which were of someone else. All the evidence was that he turned his life around in subsequent years and did a lot of outreach work for the church. The alleged crime he was arrested for was passing a counterfeit bill. He may not have even known it was fake. He had lost his job due to Coronavirus.

But whatever he had done his murder was not somehow justified by his past crime. I find it pretty sick that anyone can suggest that.

If you need to have a perfectly innocent victim to understand that police violence against black people is real you can always refer to Tamir Rice shot dead aged 12 for playing with a toy gun in the park.

Stinkywizzleteets

We have to pretend everything is aok for the white kids so they eat their tea and go to bed like good happy safe children. We can’t have them thinking about what’s really going on in the world.

Little tarquin doesn’t need to know about how the black kids in his class (if there are any) will grow up facing extreme prejudice from those who are meant to protect them. But it might put tarquin off his fish fingers to see black people expressing themselves in a beautifully choreographed, cleverly written and extremely emotive way. Dear god it may make tarquin an ... an... an anti-racist. Oh how could we face the shame?

THIS! I was called the 'P' word from age 3. And no doubt my very young DC may hear the 'T' word thrown at them in the current climate. How I wish there were people like me on popular TV programmes in my time and trying to explain my reality and thousands of others like me so that ALL of society understood, for the benefit of all.

Some of these replies are very instructive. You're really not giving your kids enough credit if you think this is going to be massively upsetting for them. You know what's massively upsetting? Institutional, systemic racism.

We don't watch BGT but I watched the clip after hearing about the complaints. I thought it was very good and I cannot see what there is to complain about. And after reading the comments here I still can't see any reason except (sometimes very deeply buried) racism.

Dance is about expression, they are called Diversity. I can't believe some of the comments on this thread.

@Straven123

And black people kill white people Gummy, no idea if they are indifferent about what they do. There's just been the stabbing sin Birmingham. Divesity were expressing their feelings about something that happened in much more racist than Britain, USA .

Was he a man in a position of power like a police man? I imagine that he’ll be charged with the crime. No policeman has been reprimanded for use of excessive force in the UK in the last 20 years. Have you not been watching the news and seen how black people are treated by the police? These are people who are supposed to protect all of us but apparently only some of us are worthy of being judged as individuals.

Diversity are a very good dance troupe however surely you can see that if the scene depicted had replicated the horrendous death of pc Andrew Harper instead of George Floyd would the general view on this forum be any different?
Both deaths unnecessary and brutal and neither should be used for entertainment purposes on a family programme.

Were the complaints about the BLM part of the routine being a “dramatised murder” as a pp says? I don’t see how that’s any “worse” than dramatising the pandemic deaths. I wonder if the complaints mentioned that too?
FWIW I thought it was brilliant, as did my DC, and it provoked conversation.