The week in audio: Clara Amfo; 1Xtra Talks Special – and the best podcasts by British women of colour

Clara Amfo (R1) | BBC Sounds
1Xtra Talks Special: George Floyd and Black Lives Matter (R1Xtra) | BBC Sounds

We all have our preferred radio station and there’s a chance that you don’t listen to Radio 1 or 1Xtra. So you may have missed Radio 1’s Clara Amfo on Monday. Amfo, who hosts the 11am-3pm show (one of those extended since lockdown), wasn’t in. Arielle Free hosted instead.

On Tuesday, Amfo explained why. Ten minutes into the show, after playing three tracks, she made a short, emotional speech. After the death of George Floyd in police custody, Amfo had spent the weekend watching the news, checking social media. Her mental health had spiralled downwards at the sight of “another brutalised black body”. What she worried was that “you want my talent but you don’t want me”, she said. She quoted comedian Amanda Seales: “You cannot enjoy the rhythm and ignore the blues.” Why does white culture love black music but not the black people who make it and play it?

All day on Tuesday, 1Xtra highlighted this issue, with especially curated music and discussions. And at 6pm, it gave over a two-hour 1Xtra Talk to a phone-in: one of the most powerful and extraordinary shows I’ve ever heard on BBC radio. Entitled George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, it was hosted by DJ Ace and Seani B. They chose to use their at-home names, Ashley Asomani and Maurice Delauney.

Asomani and Delauney are both 1Xtra DJs (Delauney has been there for 18 years), but, as they acknowledged at the start of the show, they’re very different. “The yin and the yang,” said Asomani. “I’m a big black bearded guy, I am aware that how I look can be intimidating and because of that I stay quiet, I come in, I do my show and I leave.” The more vocal Delauney brings his big personality everywhere. “I feel suffocated as a black person pretty much all the time,” he said. “There isn’t a day when I don’t have to call somebody [out]… because when I walk around on a daily, I do feel uncomfortable, because of that micro-racism.” They spoke of their frustration that racism is still continuing, their impotence and anger. Delauney has a 15-year-old son and he has to have the same conversation about racism with his son as his father and grandfather had with him.

The phone started ringing. Listener Charmaine called in with stories of being picked out and arrested by police in a teenage argument because she had the darker skin; Kayley, a white woman from Bolton, confessed to feeling intimidated by “built black men”. She didn’t want to feel such feelings: “It isn’t me.” Asomani talked of how he feels in such situations, how he tries to compensate for being him by crossing the street. (Fear of the unknown, fear of the opposite sex, what powers might be brought into play: these are complicated, mixed-up emotions.)

Musician Che Lingo spoke of the incident that led to him making the track My Block. A work colleague of his, Julian Cole, was at a nightclub in Bedford when the evening was shut down because of an incident. Cole asked for his money back. He was seized by door staff, before police took him into custody. His neck was broken and he suffered permanent brain damage. After that: nothing. No prosecutions. In the end, three of the six police were sacked for lying about their conduct. Not for his broken neck, as Lingo pointed out. “If they hadn’t been caught lying, what would have happened?” Later, an ex-policeman phoned in. He admitted that police often close ranks, but he said he condemned racism when he came across it. “All it takes for tyranny to thrive is for good people to say nothing.”

Delauney spoke about how when he talks, he has to measure his tone so that white people don’t think he’s shouting. The cry of oppressed people everywhere. Feminists are shrill. Black people are too loud. Shut up, says the establishment. Shut up and let us winners keep on winning. Asomani, Delauney and all those who called in had had enough of shutting up. They want to talk. This show – on BBC Sounds until the end of June – is absolutely essential listening.

Three great podcasts by British women of colour

About Race
Anyone who wants to understand the situation for black people in the UK should start with Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, a critique of this country’s structural racism that refuses to let well-meaning “colour-blind” liberals off the hook. This is her podcast. It came out in 2018 and, like her 2017 book, is informative, elegant and riveting. Eddo-Lodge marries recent history with interviews with campaigners and public figures such as Akala, Meera Syal and Farrukh Dhondy. She shines a bright searchlight on to our contemporary politics and conversations about race. Everyone should hear this.

The Receipts
This is a hugely successful, joy-joy-joy show that’s now a Spotify exclusive. Tolly T, Audrey (aka Ghana’s Finest) and Milena Sanchez chat about everything you can imagine: the royal family, work husbands, masturbation, R Kelly, being blocked on social media by your mum… They have some great interviewees: recently, Leigh-Anne Pinnock came on and talked about being the only black girl in Little Mix – and their banter is unbelievably cheering. Plus there’s a side-show, Your Receipts, for listeners’ questions. There are loads of episodes to binge on (about 100 on Spotify; older shows on other podcast platforms). Just great.

Masala podcast 
Sangeeta Pillai is a one-woman powerhouse. She founded an online platform, Soul Sutras, as a space for south Asian women to talk about taboos, especially those regarding sex, sexuality, mental health and the female body. Even periods can be freighted with shame in a culture that wishes such things weren’t talked about. Pillai’s Masala podcast came out last year in a nine-episode series. In each, she talks to fascinating south Asian women – drag queens, writers, lawyers – about topics as diverse as traditional dance and transgenderism. Interesting and quietly revolutionary.