Diversity’s Jordan Banjo reveals he still gets racist abuse over BLM dance routine on Britain’s Got Talent
DIVERSITY’S Jordan Banjo has revealed he still gets racist abuse nine months on from the group’s Black Lives Matter routine on Britain’s Got Talent. The powerful performance addressed the murder of George Floyd in the US at the hands of cop Derek Chauvin. It also saw the troupe take the knee, an action to show […]
DIVERSITY’S Jordan Banjo has revealed he still gets racist abuse nine months on from the group’s Black Lives Matter routine on Britain’s Got Talent.
The powerful performance addressed the murder of George Floyd in the US at the hands of cop Derek Chauvin.
It also saw the troupe take the knee, an action to show support for racial equality.
The routine went on to become the most complained about telly moment of the decade, racking up 27,000 Ofcom complaints.
However, it has also been nominated for a Must-See Moment Bafta as well as a Radio Times Moment of the Year at the Audio & Radio Industry Awards.
Speaking to the Mirror about the lasting impact of the performance, Jordan said: “I still get messages and stuff all the time like if I’m going on a TV show or if I am promoting something, they’ll be like, ‘oh I am not watching that, Banjo the racist is on there.’
“A lot of people confuse me and Ashley as well. They just assume me and Ashley are the same person.”
Perri added: “You could have 99 positive messages. But if you get one negative message, that’s the one thing you focus on.”
In a recent exclusive interview with The Sun, Perri said he hopes the group’s Bafta nomination will reopen the controversy surrounding the performance.
Despite admitting he’d felt “genuine fear” at the “constant, personal threats” received after the Britain’s Got Talent routine the Dancing on Ice star said he was willing to face another backlash if it “keeps the conversation alive”.
Perri, 25, said: “Touching on subjects as big as what we talked about, we were always going to get a lot of complaints.
“It would have been weirder to not talk about it so we did our job, we stood up for what’s right. Every single person on that stage is proud of that performance… and now we’re up for a Bafta, how crazy is that?
“It happened, it needs to be spoken about not glossed over. Hopefully this gets everyone talking about it more – because we need to talk about it and we need to change.
“People can do it however they want, but we’re performers, that’s how we express ourselves.”
Diversity’s leader Ashley Banjo, 32, claimed he got “100 abusive tweets a minute”, including death threats, following the performance in September last year, which featured a reenactment of George Floyd’s murder.
His brother Jordan, 28, who also featured in I’m a Celebrity, revealed in March his children were abused and his car was covered in cement at the height of the ordeal.
Speaking about the time, Perri said: “We all got sent messages afterwards, but Ash creates the dances, he puts his name on them, so people complain to him.
“That was the hardest part. I felt the backlash, but when you see so many people directing them at someone you love… it was constant, personal threats and got really scary. But we got through it.
“Everyone had the same response. It went from, ‘This is a bit weird’, to genuine fear. But we are so lucky we are so all so close. For a solo person, I don’t know how that would have worked.
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“But we have our families with us, and the boys, so we’re lucky to have each other.”
Two weeks ago, Diversity’s performance was nominated for Must-See Moment at this year’s Bafta TV awards alongside key scenes from Bridgerton, EastEnders, Gogglebox and The Mandalorian, as well as Nigella Lawson’s odd pronunciation of microwave on her BBC show Cook, Eat, Repeat.
Perri – whose virtual dance tutorial is available on the Samsung KX Hub – and the rest of Diversity will discover if they’ve won the viewer-voted award when the ceremony takes place on June 6.