Diversity’s Jordan Banjo says his children were sent death threats in aftermath of BGT dance row

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DIVERSITY’s Jordan Banjo has told how his children were sent death threats in the aftermath of Britain’s Got Talent’s dance row.

Jordan opened up on the fallout from Diversity’s Black Lives Matter inspired dance, saying his family were on the receiving end of vile abuse.

Diversity’s Jordan Banjo says his children were sent death threats in aftermath of BGT dance row

The 27-year-old dancer, who has son Cassius and daughter Mayowa with partner Naomi, said kids were targetted by racists after the BGT performance referenced George Floyd’s death in the US and sparked over 24500 complaints to Ofcom.

Discussing the aftermath, Jordan said: “I don’t want to highlight it but there is an issue from threats, to talking about our kids, to being called names, I have never seen so much creative writing in my entire life.

“How people can adapt one racial slur so many times is beyond me, you need a medal for that.”

He added: “I haven’t spoken to all the boys, some of the boys don’t put themselves up front and centre, so they are part of the group and have loads of Diversity supporters following them, but in terms of me, Pel (Perri) and Ash, we have had a quite a lot of stuff.

Diversity’s powerful dance sparked over 24500 complaints to Ofcom

“Within a few hours of it airing it was all positive and the next day some people weren’t too sure and then when the whole media thing picked up a bit and people who hadn’t even seen the performance were just ‘Watch your back when you walk around here’.”

Jordan told The Mirror said that the dance was a “summary” of the year we’ve had with the coronavirus pandemic and incredible efforts of the NHS also taking centre stage, yet it was “misconstrued” by a section of viewers as being a bold political statement.

He continued: “Some stuff gets misconstrued, some people have a different understanding or want to have a different understanding and for us the sentiment of Black Lives Matter – no funding, no organisation, no politics, nothing like that, but as a sentiment, as a sentence itself – if you disagree with that sentence then I don’t really know what to say.

“But for us, having a summary of 2020 as a performance and leaving out something as huge and important to us as Black Lives Matter seemed like we were trying to avoid it which we don’t want to do.”

Meanwhile, Ashley said on Monday he’s “never been prouder” as he praised ITV for “making a change” by backing Diversity’s Black Lives Matter dance.

Sharing an advert put out by ITV in national newspapers including HOAR, Ashley said: “This is what change looks like.

“@itv stand with @diversity_official and we’ve never been prouder. This is in all the national papers today.

“Thank you again to everyone that has supported us 🙏🏽🖤 #Diversity.”

HOAR and other national newspapers ran this advert today

Ashley paid a powerful tribute to George Floyd with Diversity on BGT

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.hellofaread.com/britains-got-talent/matt-lucas-and-david-walliams-feud-explained/