Techno Pioneer Juan Atkins Calls The DJ List Racist In Facebook Post

Member of the Belleville Three and one of the original pioneers of techno Juan Atkins has spoken out about racism within the industry. With everyone getting riled up about how few black people were recognized at the Oscars, he decided to turn his attention to The DJ List, not associated with popular magazine DJ Mag, which hosts its annual Top 100 DJs poll. The list doesn't use any social media polling or fan votes, which can skew the results, but rather their own algorithm. In a Facebook post he blasts the list for their lack diversity on the list, with 1-98 all being white and No. 99 and No. 100 finally getting the individuals of color.

"To my dismay, their top 100 DJ's list from #1 to #98 are all white. The only 2 black DJ's on the list are #99 and #100. WTF, are they trying to be funny? That's a slap in the face of the entire black race basically. No Derrick May, No Jeff Mils, etc. etc. are nowhere on their list," He writes. "C'mon man, it's 2016 now and there's no place in DJ culture, or anywhere for that matter for racism. And I'm not going to stand idly by and watch this sh*t go down right before my eyes."

He goes on even further with some stronger words and declares war on the "racist' list.

"So I hereby announce that I will lead the crusade for "The DJ List" to be Destroyed, Dismantled, Deleted, and Replaced. And what they probably don't realize, is that they're doing it to themselves by publishing a racist top 100 dj list. Because everyone knows that Black DJ's are amongst the best out there and are largely responsible for the development of this dance music & DJ culture."

Speaking to Thump, DJ List managing director David DeMember said the comments were a wakeup call for him and he vowed to change the system to reflect more accurately the role all races play in electronic music.

Most of the attention in electronic music has been on the fact that there hasn't been enough women representation in DJ culture, but race is also an issue. If you look at the lineups of many major electronic music festivals they are about as white washed as the tips of a 1990's boy band's hair. African Americans were vital to club culture and electronic music in the late 1970s and early 1980s, taking refuge in clubs with gays away from other racist and homophobic music venues who didn't like their disco, house and techno.