A new report has examined diversity efforts put forth by record labels and streaming services after the Black Lives Matter and The Show Must Be Paused movements.
The 37-page report, called the Music Industry Action Report Card, was created by the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) to assess how well companies within the music industry kept to their word on increasing diversity in the workplace. When The Show Must Be Paused movement started on last year’s Blackout Tuesday, initiators and BMAC executives Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas sought to reveal many music industry corporations’ complicit role in systemic racism.
“As the noise of last year’s protests, social justice engagement and initial vocal support for #BlackLivesMatter and #TheShowMustBePaused begins to quiet down,” said BMAC Co-President Wilie “Prophet” Stiggers, “we’re now looking at who is actually doing the work, who was committed to the movement beyond the moment.”
One year on from Blackout Tuesday, the report assesses the initiatives created by those music industry bodies to combat systemic racism, and the execution of each plan. The prognosis was rather negative.
“Overall, the report reveals that while companies took the generous and needed but relatively easy lift of donating funds or matching employee donations, some with a devised giving strategy,” reported Naima Cochrane, BMAC’s lead, “few created mechanisms to tackle and change issues and systems such as talent and promotion pipelines internally.”
Read the full report at the Black Music Action Coalition’s official website.
