The publicly-funded British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is ploughing £100 million into increasing “diverse and inclusive content” in response to the Black Lives Matter unrest in Britain and the wider West.
The BBC, funded by a compulsory licence fee levied on all live television viewers whether they watch BBC content or not, with non-payment punishable by fines backed by imprisonment, will also set a test for its TV output, with productions having to meet two out of three requirements for “diverse stories and portrayal on-screen, diverse production teams and talent, and diverse-led production companies.”
“The senseless killing of George Floyd — and what it tells us about the stain of systemic racism — has had a profound impact on all of us,” explained BBC Director-General the Lord Hall of Birkenhead, a wealthy white male and life member of the House of Lords with no known links to Minnesota.
“It’s made us question ourselves about what more we can do to help tackle racism — and drive inclusion within our organisation and in society as a whole,” he continued.
“This is our response — it’s going to drive change in what we make and who makes it. It’s a big leap forward — and we’ll have more to announce in the coming weeks,” he said, appearing to invoke the Great Leap Forward rhetoric of the late Chinese communist dictator Mao Zedong.
Whether or not Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME, or sometimes BME) individuals actually require more representation is open to question, given a recent audit by the pro-diversity Creative Diversity Network (CDN) found that they already account for 22.7 per cent of on-screen representation across the major broadcasters, despite making up 13 per cent of the working-age population.
The BBC has also for many years offered BAME-only training opportunities and internships, sometimes paid significantly more than the average full-time job on the minimum wage, with no comparable positions on offer to exclusively to people from white working-class backgrounds — despite that being one of the most under-represented demographics at the broadcaster.