Arnhem Land rapper Baker Boy – aka Danzal Baker – has taken to Instagram to speak out following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police last week, and discuss ongoing racism in Australia.
Saying that a number of people have called the rapper out for not speaking publicly, Baker says he chooses a “path of positivity and light” with his musical persona, and chooses not to speak politically with the platform.
“But I will say; I am a Yolngu Man from North East Arnhem Land. I am angry. I am scared. I feel every negative emotion that there is to feel about what happened to George Floyd. I feel these emotions EVERY DAMN DAY not just right now when it’s big on the news or trending on twitter and Instagram,” Baker Boy says in the post.
“This is my life and I am scared, I have anxiety about going to unknown places like a different cafe from my usual, not to mention the challenge of touring from the fear of racism, that, yes, is still rampant here in Australia too.”
Baker goes on to say he hopes non-Indigenous people in Australia is making them aware of the racism that goes on in our own backyards.
“I hope what you’re seeing in America right now is opening your eyes to the stolen land that you live on here in Australia, to your privilege, to those ‘jokes’, to those ‘jokes’ that you don’t call out, to your racist uncle or aunt or cousin or friend or coworker and, most devastatingly, opening your eyes to the over 400 deaths in custody of Indigenous Australians without a single officer charged.”
