By the time he signed on for Justin Bieber's Believe tour in 2012, Lance "K.C." Jackson had more than 30 years under his belt as a stage manager and touring pro; he'd worked with Prince, Destiny's Child, Luther Vandross, and Earth, Wind, and Fire, among others. Now, on a tour headlined by a white artist, he drew quizzical looks backstage whenever he went to help Bieber with a harness that allowed him to descend onto the stage sporting wings. "There aren't a lot of black props workers out there, so people were looking at me like, 'Who is this guy? Can he make it happen?'" Jackson recalls. "It was a prejudgment." While anecdotal, Jackson's story was revealing. Anyone who's been backstage at a concert or on the road with a music act will have noticed two things about the employees scurrying around to prepare the stage and venue: Most are doing difficult, back-breaking work that's vital to live shows, and most are white and male. In a recent Pollstar/Venues Now survey of 1,350 live-music professionals, 67 percent were male and 85 percent were white. Black workers constituted only two percent, with Hispanic workers at 3.6, and two percent deemed "multiracial/multiethnic."… Read full this story
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