Being Anti-Racist

Image: ‘College Panel’ sketch, Saturday Night Live, 2021

In one of the more bizarre meetings I’ve had with potential funders, I was told that Khameleon was not presenting itself as ‘anti-racist’ enough. I don’t intend to speak much about what they considered ‘anti-racist’, some buzzword they were throwing around without any real definition or expalantion. Important to note though is that their criticism of us was nothing to do with who we were, what we were doing, or our team. It was simply that we were not ‘presenting’ as anti-racist enough for them.

I wasn’t shouting about Khameleon’s obvious ‘anti-racist’ aims in this meeting. Much to their dismay, I had the audacity to suggest that Khameleon wasn’t solely anti-racist in its aims. In fact, I made clear the Khameleon priority was not ‘anti-racism’ (and again, they had no real definition for this phrase…), but in fact our priority was theatre, film, art, and supporting and platforming artists who we felt had incredible talent and stories to share.

This week on SNL (odd reference I know), there was actually a sketch that parodies a similar experience (which is extremely common for many artists I might add). Give it a quick watch…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIubxSsOVSw

Artists of colour, queer artists, and even women (not a minority – a fact that people seem very quick to forget) are often never given the option to speak about their art. We are never artists first – we are always activists, politicians, ‘anti-racists’. Only then our creativity can be recognised.

Khameleon, and the incredible artists we are lucky enough to work with, are often also activists, and do a huge amount of work to forge change with their work. However, at Khameleon, we are creating a space for these artists of colour to put their craft first. We don’t collaborate with them because they are ‘anti-racist’. We work with them because they are brilliant at what they do, and we want to give them space that is so often not given to them. If they want to bring their experiences to the table, we strive to create an environment where that is comfortable and possible. The difference is that we do not hire them just for these experiences, or to use these experiences in some way to fulfil some ‘anti-racist’ agenda.

Let artists be artists, even if they are… especially if they are artists of colour.