02/06/2020
United We Stream is an initiative that was started with the explicit goal to provide a support system for club culture, nightlife and people within affected by the COVID-related closures of club and culture spaces world-wide. Many of these clubs, institutions and individuals however have largely failed in their social and moral responsibility to be such a support system for black people and people of color - both historically and specifically in the past days during the aftermath of George Floyd’s lynching by white police forces.
This isn’t just about the badly needed work to address racist door policies and the diversification of line-ups, but it relates to a much more fundamental question - despite profiting directly from the commodification and appropriation of black culture, the predominantly white club industry has shown no initiative to identify, address and change the structures that center it around white privilege and white supremacy. More than anything the silence and actions of the last days have shown that many of us still choose to ignore their complicity in the often deadly injustices black people and people of color endure every day and that have been at the center of the recent protests. This silent complicity IS the problem.
Instead of broadcasting on Tuesday, United We Stream will silence our channels and use our platforms and air time to direct people and funds to initiatives and institutions that are actively engaged in battling racism and that are currently in most need of financial support. These are listed below.
However this is supposed to go beyond pure performative action and virtue signalling. This is part of a larger process which starts with acknowledging that racism is not a phenomena exclusive to the US or a tool of ultra-violent extremists, but that it’s endemic and at the center of our daily life and doing. It is deeply rooted in the European colonial past and connects the current protests directly with the systemic discrimination people of color experience in Europe.
Until we actively choose to confront our own racism and change the structures that enable it, large parts of the club music community will continue to deny black people and people of color dignity, well-being and equal participation. Instead we need to ensure that all of our community understands and actively supports all efforts and actions that unreservedly say: black lives matter.
If club culture wants to be the safer space it claims to be and to nurture much needed allyship, it has to overcome its inaction and do the work needed. We are committed to make sure that as a network of hundreds of clubs worldwide, this will be the final call to do so.
We ask everyone to contribute in every way possible, because we know that together we can and will do better.
Black Lives Matter
Justiceforgeorgefloyd️
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Black Lives Matter:
https://blacklivesmatter.com/
Equal Justice Initiative:
https://eji.org
NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
https://www.naacp.org
Amadeu Antonio Stiftung:
https://www.amadeu-antonio-stiftung.de/spenden-und-stiften/
ReachOut Berlin:
https://www.reachoutberlin.de/
ISD Bund e.V. Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland:
http://isdonline.de/
