Ashley Banjo reveals his Black Lives Matter routine on BGT caused ‘division’ in his family

Ashley Banjo has revealed his Black Lives Matter routine on Britain’s Got Talent caused ‘division’ in his family.

The dancer performed the routine with his troupe Diversity on the ITV series in September, provoking over 25,000 complaints to Ofcom.

Speaking to the Daily Star, Ashley admitted that the performance was not universally praised in his family and some didn’t like it.

He said: ‘Even among my own family and friends the performance sparked conversation. 

‘There has been some negativity with my family. There was division.

‘People didn’t directly disagree with the performance but there was a conversation about if it was really necessary. I saw it happen in my own household.’

Ashley also said there are still some people in his life who ‘haven’t spoken [to him] at all’ since the performance aired. 

The TV star admitted he still receives online abuse from trolls to this day over the episode, despite Ofcom not taking any action over the complaints.      

The act saw group leader Ashley have a white man’s knee leaning on his neck, in reference to the death of black man George Floyd .

Ashley has also since admitted he has been encouraged to ramp up his BLM campaign following the ‘hate’ he received over his Diversity routine.

He would perform the same routine 100 times over, despite the fact it received so many complaints.

Ashley added that although the routine sparked backlash, it also started a dialogue which lasted weeks as he dubbed it the one of the ‘most impactful conversation starters the country has ever seen’.

Discussing the complaints the routine received on Instagram, he said: ‘I don’t think we anticipated the level at which this would cause a sort of uproar.

‘To be the second most complained about television moment in the last decade pretty much 25,000 people took a time to fill out a form and complain that came as a bit of a shock.

‘If the fact black lives matter makes you feel uncomfortable you have to ask yourself why. That four minutes it caused hours, weeks worth of conversation,’ he said

‘Not everyone will always like you, not everyone will always agree with you. Stand by what you believe in and speak up for it because if you do you can make change.’

ITV ‘stood with Diversity’ as they featured adverts in national newspapers in support of the controversial dance while Ofcom announced they will not investigate the complaints any further.