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Skunk Anansie’s Skin has said that racism “has grown” since the election of US President Donald Trump and the vote for Brexit in the UK.
- Read more: Skunk Anansie: “All anybody wanted to talk about back then was Britpop, Britpop, Britpop”
Speaking to Classic Rock magazine, Skin also opened up about the Black Lives Matter movement saying it was “vital” because of worsening racism around the world.
Skin said: “Racism has grown since Trump came to power and the UK voted for Brexit.”
She continued: “Black Lives Matter is really important, because there’s been an air, when black people talk about racism, they kind of get shoved to the side. No one really wanted to talk about it. And now it’s put it right smack front and center in front of people’s faces.
“It’s really vital that people put this at the forefront of conversation, because racism and anti-semitism have been getting worse and worse over the last few years.”
Skin added: ‘If you’re not the one being persecuted, it’s very easy to step aside and not get involved.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Skin said: “I am saying there’s a very drip, drip erosion of rights. So I’m really pleased about Black Lives Matter.
“I really support it, obviously, because I’m a black person and my life matters. And I think it’s made a lot of white people much more aware of all the subtleties of racism, all the things that are happening that they didn’t see.”
Earlier this month, Skin said Skunk Anansie’s story was overlooked because people were constantly talking about Britpop.
Speaking in a new interview, Skin, who recently released her memoir It Takes Blood And Guts, discussed her band’s legacy and what it was that influenced her to publish her first book.
“It sort of came out of LIVE@25 – celebrating 25 years of Skunk Anansie – and I guess that was the first time in our career we collectively looked backwards because we’re quite a forward thinking band,” Skin told Radio X.
“I thought our story and the stories of people like us was kinda getting whitewashed and trampled over with people talking about Britpop on and on and on…There was a massive rock scene, there was a massive drum and base scene. You can draw a line from Goldie to Stormzy I think personally and I just thought it was good to have an alternative story from someone who was very different… but also my band was very successful at the same time as Britpop.”
Back in September, Skin recalled her historic headline slot at Glastonbury 1999, saying that she received more backlash than Jay-Z, also describing it as “one of the best moments of my life”.
She was the first black British headliner of the festival, something that was not achieved for another 20 years until Stormzy took the main stage in 2019.
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