Riz Ahmed the one-half of brown super duo Swet Shop Boys, and sweet, sweet, acting cred of Star Wars Rogue One, gave a speech as part of Channel 4’s Annual Diversity Lecture yesterday. Ahmed said the country had failed to fairly represent minority groups and the Government needed to create laws to address the problem.
Riz Ahmed is 100% invited to the cookout. Riz talking about representation in the industry today. WATCH THIS! MY FAV IS WOKE! pic.twitter.com/h2EF8Zk5n8
— Jason “Lemonade”-ing (@IsotopeRose) March 2, 2017
“There is a serious hiring problem and it’s only when the Government steps in to set the rules of the game that it really drives people,” he said, according to the Press Association. “You won’t be handcuffing employers to anything and they will thank you for it in the end.”
The 34-year-old explained how he had to find work in America because he couldn’t get much in the U.K. because of his ethnicity and that must change, so all kinds of British people can see themselves represented onscreen.
“The term diversity actually turns me off a little bit, it makes it sound like a luxury, like a bit of spice sprinkled on the top, but we need to understand that it isn’t an extra, it is representation,” he said. “Every time you see yourself reflected in the media it’s a message that you matter.”
Riz repeated his remarks about being stopped every time at the airport and said if Asian actors and young people were better represented onscreen, it could curb extremism. A phenomenon well pointed and no better reflected in his music video for “t5.”