TV historian David Olusoga said racism in broadcasting left him clinically depressed.
The Civilisations presenter said it is ‘lonely’ as a black person in the television industry and he has often been left feeling ‘patronised and marginalised’ throughout his career.
Speaking in the wake of the global Black Lives Matter movement, the historian said the industry is ‘at risk of losing’ a generation of young people who are ‘leading this global shift in consciousness’ against racism.
The BBC has been involved in a string of racism rows in recent weeks – including over whether it should play The Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia at the Last Night of the Proms despite their apparent links to colonialism and slavery.
Earlier this month, the coorporation was forced to apologise after a white presenter said ‘n****r’ in a news report about racist hit-and-run attack on a black NHS worker on July 29.
TV historian David Olusoga (pictured) said racism in the television industry left him clinically depressed
In the annual James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture (pictured), the keynote speech of the Edinburgh TV Festival, Olusoga said he had been labelled as ‘difficult’ during his career for raising incidents of racism
Olusoga said this ‘genuinely damaged faith in the BBC among many black people,’ The Times reports.
In the annual James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture, the keynote speech of the Edinburgh TV Festival, Olusoga said he had been labelled as ‘difficult’ during his career for raising incidents of racism.
He told how he was instructed to ‘be more like another black person’ by a colleague. It emerged that the person in question was the colleague’s drug dealer.
The University of Manchester public history professor said that while he has received ‘amazing opportunities’, he has also been ‘patronised and marginalised’.
‘I’ve been in high demand, but I’ve also been on the scrap heap,’ he said.
‘I’ve felt inspired, and convinced that our job – making TV and telling stories – is the best job in the world.
‘But at other times I’ve been so crushed by my experiences, so isolated and dis-empowered by the culture that exists within our industry, that I have had to seek medical treatment for clinical depression.
The Civilisations presenter (pictured with co-presenters Simon Schama and Mary Beard) said it is ‘lonely’ as a black person in the television industry and he has often been left feeling ‘patronised and marginalised’ throughout his career
The BBC has been involved in a string of racism rows in recent weeks – including over whether it should play The Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia at the Last Night of the Proms (pictured on September 8, 2012) despite their apparent links to colonialism and slavery
‘I’ve come close to leaving this industry on several occasions. And I know many black and brown people who have similar stories to tell.’
Olusoga said that the lack of diversity is particularly noticeable in production roles and ‘people who make and commission the UK’s television programmes do not look like the population at large – our audience’.
He said the Black Lives Matter movement had ‘forced our society to have conversations that for decades we have put off or avoided’.
He also said there is a ‘lost generation’ of black and brown people who did not stay in the business.
‘I stand here today not as one of the TV industry success stories, but as a survivor,’ he said.
‘I am one of the last men standing of TV’s lost generation.
Earlier this month, the coorporation was forced to apologise after white presenter Fiona Lamdin (pictured) said ‘n****r’ in a news report about racist hit-and-run attack on a black NHS worker on July 29.
‘The generation of black and brown people who entered this industry 15, 20, 25 years ago with high hopes. I’m a survivor of a culture within TV that failed that generation.
‘I’m here because a handful of people used their power and their privilege to help me.’
Olusoga said that during his early years in television ‘there were parts of the industry in which diversity meant making sure that there was a fair balance of people from Oxford and Cambridge’.
He added: ‘Being the only black person on a production means being the only person asking certain questions, the only person uncomfortable that an image or a sequence reinforces certain stereotypes,’ he said.
‘Like other black people I know in this industry I’ve spent my career complaining that scripts or rough cuts contain interviews with white experts, while all the black contributors are victims of the phenomena in question are speaking about their personal experiences – their feelings not their expertise.’