Published
Wed, Dec 23, 2020, 16:00
- We review our progress since June and commit £50,000 to Black and other minority communities in 2021.
This past June, we released a statement outlining how RA's editorial team would promote racial equity. We pledged to fundamentally change how we operate as a publication, and to shift our approach to coverage in order to uplift and empower Black artists and Black writers. These commitments were part of an ongoing effort to undo the whitewashing of dance music that RA itself has been a part of.
In that statement, we committed to the following targets:
• Publishing work by at least six new Black writers on RA across July and August, across reviews and features
• At least 30% of individual bylines in RA features in 2020 will come from BIPOC writers
• At least 50% of RA Podcasts in 2020 will come from BIPOC artists
• At least 70% of Rewind reviews for the rest of 2020 to focus on records by Black artists
• Deeper and more frequent coverage of predominantly Black genres
• A feature series dedicated to telling the underrepresented histories of electronic music
• A major, ongoing historical series dedicated to exploring the origins of key electronic music genres
• Changes to our Style Guide—for instance, capitalising Black when used in a racial, ethnic or cultural context, and ensuring writers do not give undue emphasis to an artist's nationality or ethnicity
• Publishing RA's editorial integrity guidelines by end of August
• Publishing a guide to pitching to RA
Here's what we achieved so far. (June 26th, 2020 - December 11th, 2020)
• We have published work by ten new Black writers since the statement was published
• 90% of Rewind reviews published since July have focused on Black electronic music records
• 27, or 54 percent, of 2020's RA Podcasts so far have come from BIPOC artists
• 19, or 50 percent, of 2020's RA Exchanges have focused on BIPOC industry figures
• 33, or 47 percent, of our feature-length articles have been written by BIPOC writers, 64 percent of whom are women or non-binary writers
• We have updated our internal Style Guide, and in September we published RA's first public editorial integrity guidelines. You can read the guidelines here.
We have also made a new round of commitments for the first six months of 2021:
• As part of our stated commitment to make an ongoing financial commitment to organisations benefiting Black and other minority communities, in 2021 RA will commit to at least £50,000 to Black and minority communities through partnerships. The first of these will be a partnership with Black Minds Matter, which also includes a year-long series of editorial features, launching in January.
• 50% of our films will support Black artists and collectives. 50% will support women and non-binary artists and collectives.
• 50% of all reviews will focus on music from BIPOC artists.
• 30% of our features will focus on BIPOC artists, 30% on women and non-binary artists.
Half of all Podcasts and RA Exchanges will focus on women and non-binary artists. One third will focus on BIPOC artists.
• 25% of our features will be written by journalists of colour. 35% will be written by women & non-binary journalists.
• We will publish a feature series dedicated to telling the stories of underrepresented histories in the electronic music scene. Part of this project is due to launch in early 2021
• We will keep working toward an ever more diverse pool of writers. In addition to seeking out experienced journalists we want to work with for the first time, we will set aside time and resources to help beginner writers hone their craft.
• Publish RA's editorial style guide
We will update RA's About Us section to make it a comprehensive resource—we'll let you know when that is live. We have also created a permanent home on the site for RA's Community Projects.
As we said in our summer update, RA will never be able to repay the debt it owes to Black culture and artists, but that debt will always be in the front of our minds. The actions outlined above are part of an ongoing process, and we will continue to keep you updated on that process. If you have any feedback for us, please email us at [email protected].