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Turner on the 20

by Sarathy Korwar feat. Zia Ahmed

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Exclusive to Bandcamp. All proceeds from the sale of this track will be donated to The Stephen Lawrence Charity Trust. www.stephenlawrence.org.uk

‘Turner on the 20’ is a track made in response to the ideas presented in an online review of my album More Arriving. It stated, “As a protest record, surprisingly enough, More Arriving falls short of its high standards due to bland generalisations, such as ‘which racist do you want on your bank note?‘ And not least because the English painter J.M.W. Turner – the new face of the 20 pound note – campaigned for the abolition of slavery.”

I found it frustrating that it was deemed necessary to pick out an album that tackles racism and criticise it because it wasn’t specifically naming the racists.

People’s discomfort with terms like ‘Which racist do you want on your bank note?’ and ‘Britain is racist’ shows an incapacity to admit and acknowledge one’s own privilege and complicity in crimes committed. We (Zia and myself) are challenging the notion that because Turner has been officially celebrated, we should no longer be calling out the racism that the economy of Britain has historically been built on. This track is our effort to question the knee-jerk defences to today’s racist climate put forward by often well-meaning people.

We hear this opinion too often - “We can’t paint the entire country with the same brush” or “We aren’t all racist, so don’t call Britain racist!”. The only position on this is to say - racism exists. It existed in the past. It exists now. This country was built on the back of racist policies and we need to continue calling it out and dismantling the structural racism that still exists.

The song also mocks the idea that “Things are better than they were before, so stop whining about racism all the time”. Now we are woke to racism so things can’t be the same right? The notion that racism was a problem in the 70s with the National Front but now things are different (ie better) is misleading. For the most part, all it does is nurture the status quo and prevent any meaningful change from happening.

And lastly, no disrespect to Turner. He was a cool dude.

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released June 19, 2020

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Sarathy Korwar London, UK

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  • Apr 21
    London, UK

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