What new forms of colonisation are we seeing in our industries?

Earlier in spring 2021, the collective got together for a virtual meeting to experiment with a format for sense-making. The aim was to take a question of interest to us and explore it together, raising thoughts, ideas or reflections – anything that came to us in that time.

Part 1 below provides a high level overview of some of the themes that emerged for us in the session. These are our raw notes. For Part 2, we asked members to reflect on the discussion in the weeks following the session and send through any articles, links, art pieces or photos – anything that resonated with them that they want to share with the group.

Over the coming two years we will experiment with alternative formats for sharing our discussions.

Part 1: Sense-making

What surfaces for us when we think about this question? What are we thinking about?

• Sapping of uniqueness of ideas made by diasporic communities/no context e.g TikTok dances and music.
• Losing ownership of a culture.
• Song which started off on Black TikTok then migrated on to the main platform via non-black users – a microcosm for a wider phenomenon in culture such as Kim Kardashian and what is fashionable when worn/acted?
• NFTs – a way to own viral content ‘Charlie bit my finger’ sold for £0.5m. Ownership is transferred. Can this be replicated in wider culture? A way to capture a zeitgeist after it has been co-opted?
• One of Beyonce’s choreographer’s is looking into copywriting dance moves to ensure that dance creatives get paid for their input to the culture.
• Wages and pay – young black people and people of colour coming in to replace senior white people but for half the pay.
• Doing things for the culture and not thinking of making any money from it. Do we need to be smarter?
• Thinking about things only in terms of money. Is that right?
• Lived experience/insights extraction as a new form of colonisation/new commodity. Who is benefitting?
• What happens to language?
• Branding of language.
• Words being renamed or recaptured, the meaning becomes augmented. Everything is becoming professionalised. Everything is up for sale.
• Does everything need to be accessible/marketable/open enough to take away the fun of what the culture is?
• Is decentralisation the answer? Once these network conversations are released they are commodified.
• What is an appropriate scale to preserve the rich ideas but also share them without commodifying the ideas?

Part 2: Reflection

How has this session activated you? What connections have you made?

• The Planet Solaris of D&I – An article on the professionalisation of diversity and inclusion in the workplace
• Sour sweet – Novel by Timothy Mo exploring the clans and conflicts of Soho's Chinatown, where the Chen family arrive and want to succeed as restaurateurs in the 1960s.
• “Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future.”― George Orwell, 1984
• ‘Up shit creek without a paddle’
• Choreographer Jaquel Knight launches company to copywright dance moves
• 'Charlie bit my finger' NFT Drop
• £180 for a turmeric supplement?!
• Aid and extraction: “ We should stop referring to "aid" as a form of benevolence. It is not and never been. Aid has always been about extraction. The ways we discuss aid today must reflect the new modes of extraction that create hierarchy and domination. We can't decolonize extractive relationships.” @radical_carib June 2021
• Colonisation of public opinion: “I’m interested in how it took no less than a decade for an entire generation of academics & writers to be convinced that everyone born after 1990(?) hates being challenged, critical dialogue & is obsessed with public cancellation. This serves state interests more than anything.” @lolaolufemi_ June 2021
• “Bothsideism is the mind killer” @by_cabellero June 2021
• Black Tiktokers are refusing to create a dance for Megan Thee Stallion’s new song: THOT Shit. Guardian article, June 2021.
• Pop Dust article on the TikTok strike
• The relationship between Design and policing - and the extractive nature of design
• Michael B. Jordan’s business trademarking the word ‘J’ouvert’ for his new private label rum, having never been to Trinidad and in the trademark application claiming that the word has no meaning in a foreign language. It’s an integral part of Trinbagoian and Caribbean culture, directly related to emancipation and every year at home, and more and in other islands and countries. We made enough noise that he apologised and is changing the name. BBC article here.