For the second year in a row, there were no minority actors or actresses nominated for any of the major Academy Awards. This resulted in the creation of the ‘#OscarsSoWhite’ hashtag as well as a call for African American celebrities to boycott the ceremony. This movement has not shown any signs of slowing down and now, a similar call to action within the electronic music industry is picking up steam.
Popular techno artist Juan Atkins has taken to Facebook to voice his displeasure regarding ‘The DJ List’. This particular list, not to be confused with the ‘DJ Mag Top 100’, uses an algorithm to track the most influential DJs in the world. Here is what Atkins had to say:
“What’s heavy on my mind right now is that I recently discovered “The DJ List”. And to my dismay, their top 100 DJ’s list from #1 to #98 are all white. The only 2 black DJ’s on the list are #99 and #100. WTF, are they trying to be funny? That’s a slap in the face of the entire black race basically. No Derrick May, No Jeff Mils, etc. etc. are nowhere on their list. C’mon man, it’s 2016 now and there’s no place in DJ culture, or anywhere for that matter for racism. And I’m not going to stand idly by and watch this shit go down right before my eyes. So I hearby announce that I will lead the crusade for “The DJ List” to be Destroyed, Dismantled, Deleted, and Replaced. And what they probably don’t realize, is that they’re doing it to themselves by publishing a racist top 100 dj list. Because everyone knows that Black DJ’s are amongst the best out there and are largely responsible for the development of this dance music & DJ culture. So they instantly lost credibility upon publication of this racist list. I couldn’t even sleep thinking about this bullshit. So a big F.U. and goodbye to “The DJ List”. See ya wouldn’t wanna be ya.”
We often talk about the misrepresentation of female DJs on these types of lists, but at least one artist feels that race is also an issue. What do you guys think?
Source: Magnetic Mag
