I wonder how many of the other black festival-goers were asked if they had drugs to sell?
This is a new record… low! Everytime I’ve been to a festival, someone always asks if I have anything to sell. This is nothing new. I always ask myself “Do I look like a drug dealer?” But now I find myself asking “What does a drug dealer look like, and do I match the description?”
Interestingly, it was only white people who asked me if I sold drugs. I wonder what their strategy is when looking for dealers. Is it to use the odds and ask as many black people that they can find and hope for the best.
These are the same tactics employed by the police across England. “Black people are nine times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police”, official figures for England and Wales show.
I think that somebody needs to do a survey and get some official numbers around how many black people in 10 have been asked if they sell drugs at a festival.
Jubilation!
The festival was called Jubilation, and was in Herne Hill. Madness headlined, supported by musicians and bands from the Ska music genre. Mike Skinner did an old school garage DJ set and Tippa Irie played some of his reggae tracks from yesteryear.
Despite the location and music genre, the festival-goers were mainly white people. Maybe this is the result of gentrification?
The majority of black people at the venue were working behind the bar, or were performing on stage. Other than that, the rest of us made a small number of people.
I wonder how many of the other black festival-goers were asked if they had drugs to sell?
At first, I genuinely think that people come up to me to have a chat, cos they ask about the festival, maybe about an artists, and then the same line comes “You know where I could get anything?” Which is code for, do you have any drugs to sell.
There was me thinking, they were talking to me cos in me they saw someone else who was feeling the music.
In short
Sadly not, apparently I fit their description of what a drug dealer should look like.
Will there be a time when black people do not fit the description of a drug dealer? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
