Slightly ironic, but there have been criticisms that the MOBOs are racist, in that they ignore the influence of other non-black groups, in the history of "black" music.
Critic Niall Crowley highlights the inherent inaccuracies in the term "black music", for example noting the significant Jewish influences on rhythm and blues and rock n roll. He states: "Without these and many other non-African Americans who played a defining role in the evolution of rhythm and blues, we wouldn’t have much of the great 'black' music we've had over the past 50 years or so." Crowley also juxtaposes the attitudes of the MOBOs with the huge success of black performers in recent decades, writing that the awards reinforce "the idea that today’s black performers are simply the latest generation of sufferers in a long history of victimhood." He argues that in reality "no one could possibly claim that recent generations of black performers have suffered at the hands of a racist music industry" and the MOBOs "encourage music fans to see discrimination and racism where there is none,[7]
You forgot to include the preceding paragraph in your quote, lifted fom another discussion on another site about the same issue.
The preceding paragraph reads:
The Independent newspaper columnist David Lister criticizes the MOBO awards, writing: "I find any notion of separate awards devised for black musicians, and still largely for black musicians, depressing". He went on to say[5] that such awards "limit the music and the performers they claim to honour" and "manage to be both ludicrous and dangerously divisive at the same time." Others[6] reject this criticism, calling it "pedant", and noting that MOBO simply focuses on genres just as other awards focus on other genres.
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Media-and-TV/Question1374229-2.html
Which gives both a more prejudiced and a more balanced viewpoint.
Also, no-one would deny any other influences on any genre of music. To do so is ridiculous. All music, composers, and performers are influenced by many external factors. To suggest that the MOBO awards are for music purely of black origin is fallacious.
Additionally, the comment " Crowley also juxtaposes the attitudes of the MOBOs with the huge success of black performers in recent decades," appear to assume, mistakenly, like many posters on here, that the MOBO awards are for black perfomers only. Which is evidently a false assumption.
He goes on to say "no one could possibly claim that recent generations of black performers have suffered at the hands of a racist music industry".
Maybe not now, but there was discimination before the MOBO awards were in existence, which is one reason why they were created.
