Independent Media | Campaigning Journalism
Alexandra Burke speaks out about racism, the music industry told her ‘to look whiter’
X Factor winner Alexandra Burke said she was told to bleach her skin and change her hair “to look whiter” as she spoke about her experiences of racism in the music industry.
The singer who won the TV talent show in 2008, posted a video on Instagram.
She said she was told to avoid wearing braids or having an afro hairstyle.
During the 15-minute clip, she recalled: “When I first won the X Factor, I was 19.
“I got told because you’re black you are going to have to work 10 times harder than a white artist because of the colour of your skin.
“You can’t have braids, you can’t have an afro, you can’t have anything that is basically my identity.
“You have to have hair, for example, that appeals to white people so people can understand you better.”
She added: “I mean, I was only 19 years old. There’s only so much you can understand at 19 and your life has completely changed overnight.
“And that was quite hard to digest.”
The singer said she was also advised to use skin lightening products but refused to do so.
“I got told to bleach my skin and that was something I refused to do,” she said.
“Because that is just absurd to me that somebody could even remotely say to someone: ‘Bleach your skin so that you can look whiter.’
“Still to this moment it breaks my heart that I was told that.”
Imagine they tell the empress Alexandra Burke to bleach X Factor is some real fuckries the way they deal with black women. pic.twitter.com/k32Kg28XYy
— Active 🔊🔌 (@DJBiggoss) June 20, 2020
Burke then turned emotional as she discussed other “heartbreaking” experiences.
Describing how someone told her “you can’t release this kind of music, because white people don’t understand that”, she said: “I am so upset with myself that I allowed that.”
It comes after fellow X Factor contestant Misha B spoke out about the show pushing an “angry black girl narrative” on her.
Burke said it “inspired” her to share similar experiences.
We need your help ...
The coronavirus pandemic is changing our world, fast. And we will do all we can to keep bringing you news and analysis throughout. But we are worried about maintaining enough income to pay our staff and minimal overheads.
Now, more than ever, we need a vibrant, independent media that holds the government to account and calls it out when it puts vested economic interests above human lives. We need a media that shows solidarity with the people most affected by the crisis – and one that can help to build a world based on collaboration and compassion.
We have been fighting against an establishment that is trying to shut us down. And like most independent media, we don’t have the deep pockets of investors to call on to bail us out.
Can you help by chipping in a few pounds each month?
Support us -
Show Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to leave a comment.Join the conversationPlease read our comment moderation policy here.
the music industry is an industry and its function is to make money
it is a capitalist institution
like all capitalist institutions it must favour money over life
see administration of the current pandemic
music industry doesn’t care about music
music industry doesn’t care about art
music industry doesn’t care about people
music industry doesn’t care about colour
capital is colour blind
capital is emotionally driven not rationally driven
capital does not invest in renewable energy because:
if it’s good for people it must be bad for capital
this is how capital thinks
it’s not so much thinking as an unconsciously determined impulse rationale
think in evolutionary terms of the reptile brain
think not of the cunning of the elders of Zion
think of the greed, ignorance, selfishness, stupidity
and very small penises of
Donald Trump, Bolsonaro, Putin
and of the ones the antisemites left out:
Jacob Rees Mogg and Doris Johnson
actually I now recall hearing how the music industry ghosted Nona Simone for her endorsement of black power
not sure if this was racist or just a general capitalist principle that any objection to the status quo is a threat to the interests of capital
less
freedom of action, protest, democratic representation, organisation of labour, provision of support infrastructure to workers:
more
profit, security of permissive regime, predictability of returns, economies of production