Organizers of a music festival in Michigan are charging white people twice the amount to attend as “people of color,” and the outrageous decision has prompted one of the scheduled entertainers to back out.
Tiny Jag, a biracial rapper whose real name is Jillian Graham, was scheduled to perform at AfroFuture Fest’s Detroit event in August and she quickly withdrew upon learning of the pricing structure, Detroit Metro Times reported.
“I was immediately enraged just because I am biracial,” Graham told the Detroit Metro Times. “I have family members that would have, under those circumstances, been subjected to something that I would not ever want them to be in … especially not because of anything that I have going on.”
Organizers advertised an early bird ticket price of $10 for “people of color,” while “non-POC” tickets ran $20, according to an Eventbrite page set up for the event. After July 17, tickets for people of color will be $20, while white people will pay $40.
OFFICIAL LINE UP For Afrofuture Fest IS HERE✨✨✨
We’re activating the BLACK farm grounds of FEEDOM FREEDOM(866 Manistique) & YES, this is happening on BLACK Detroit’s Eastside
Early Bird POC Tickets are $10 & $20 for NONPOC’s & on sale until JULY 17thhttps://t.co/IAiMD22dRy pic.twitter.com/EUgf50EgqN
— Afrofuture Youth (@AFYDet) July 4, 2019
And to be clear, there’s no remorse from organizers for the discriminatory policy undertaken for ticket purchases.
“Why do we have POC (people of color) and Non-POC (white people) tickets? I’m glad you asked!” the page states.
“Equality means treating everyone the same,” the message continues.
“Equity is insuring (sic) everyone has what they need to be successful. Our ticket structure was built to insure (sic) that the most marginalized communities (people of color) are provided with an equitable chance at enjoying events in their own community (black Detroit).”
Proper spelling apparently not in the recipe for success.
A spokeswoman for Eventbrite told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement the event will be removed if the terms aren’t changed.
“Our mission is to bring the world together through live experiences,” the release said. “We strive to provide a platform that enables people to gather for their chosen purpose, and that reflects diverse viewpoints, so long as they don’t violate our terms.”
“We do not permit events that require attendees to pay different prices based on their protected characteristics such as race or ethnicity,” she added. “In this case, we have notified the creator of the event about this violation and requested that they alter their event accordingly. We have offered them the opportunity to do this on their own accord; should they not wish to comply we will unpublish the event completely from our site.”
As of this writing, the event page is still up.
Tiny Jag, whose grandmother is white, told the Metro Times the ticketing policy is “non-progressive and it’s not solution-focused in my eyes.”
Tiny Jag pulls out of AfroFuture Fest after learning white people would be charged a different price to attend https://t.co/PuE4EkAXer
— Detroit Metro Times (@metrotimes) July 4, 2019
“It seems almost like it has spite, and unfortunately with spite comes hate, and that’s just not obviously going to be a good direction for us to go if we’re looking for positive change,” she said.
The rapper saw support from others for her “principled” stand. Here’s a sampling of online responses:
Props to @tinyjaguar for standing up on principle and pulling out of the performance.
Want people to recognise that. ✌?
— ZUBY: (@ZubyMusic) July 7, 2019
Don’t know who she is but I will say she has class.
— CyCeaux (@CyCeaux) July 7, 2019
This is honestly awesome. In a day and age when people think it’s impossible to be racist against white people, a brown girl sees how fucked up it is. How do they expect racism to end while perpetuating it? Never heard of her but now I’m interested.
— Shari-Cola (@ColaShari) July 7, 2019
Good for her. Surprised it’s even legal charging people differently based on the colour of their skin.
— Aɳԃɾҽɯ (@the_AndyG) July 6, 2019
Damn, Jag’s got balls! I love it.
— Brando Flex (@BrandoFlex) July 4, 2019
I like that she stood up for herself and her beliefs. My kids are Hispanic and white but look mostly white so they would have been charged more for the color of their skin. That’s messed up.
— Ryan Flatt (@rflatt10) July 7, 2019
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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