Detroit-based rapper Tiny Jag pulled out of a Detroit, MI music festival this week after she learned that white concert-goers would be charged a higher price than people of color.
Jag, also known as Jillian Graham, told the Detroit Metro Times that she found out about AfroFuture Fest’s pay model when a white friend reached out to her and sent her a screenshot via Instagram that outlined the pay difference. The early bird POC (“people of color”) ticket was $10 while the early bird “non-POC” ticket cost $20.
“I was immediately enraged just because I am biracial,” Graham told the 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.”
The organizers of the event are upfront that they are charging different prices based on race, including sharing artwork on social media with a caption about early-bird tickets that reads, “Early Bird POC Tickets are $10 & $20 for NONPOC’s & on sale until JULY 17th.”
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
Jag said it was hard to cancel the show, and apologized to her fans.
“It’s not fun to withdraw out of shows, especially at home, especially in your hometown, and especially when your supporters have been so good to you,” she says. “It’s also not fun to do that to my fellow Black women, like that sucks too. It sucks that this is a thing that’s put a wedge here.”
AfroFuture Fest shared a message on their event page on ticketing site Eventbrite, explaining their price discrepancy. They explained that their ticket structure was built to ensure people in the community would have an equitable chance to enjoy the event.
WHY DO WE HAVE POC(PEOPLE OF COLOR) AND NONPOC(WHITE PEOPLE) TICKETS? I’M GLAD YOU ASKED!
EQUALITY MEANS TREATING EVERYONE THE SAME
EQUITY IS INSURING EVERYONE HAS WHAT THEY NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL
OUR TICKET STRUCTURE WAS BUILT TO INSURE THAT THE MOST MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES (PEOPLE OF COLOR) ARE PROVIDED WITH AN EQUITABLE CHANCE AT ENJOYING EVENTS IN THEIR OWN COMMUNITY(BLACK DETROIT).
AFFORDING JOY AND PLEASURE IS UNFORTUNATELY STILL A PRIVILEGE IN OUR SOCIETY FOR POC AND WE BELIEVE EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE ACCESS TO RECEIVING SUCH.
WE’VE SEEN TOO MANY TIMES ORGASMIC EVENTS HAPPENING IN DETROIT AND OTHER POC POPULATED CITIES AND WHAT CONSISTENTLY HAPPENS IS PEOPLE OUTSIDE OF THE COMMUNITY BENEFITING MOST FROM AFFORDABLE TICKET PRICES BECAUSE OF THEIR PROXIMITY TO WEALTH.
THIS CYCLE DISPROPORTIONATELY DISPLACES BLACK AND BROWN PEOPLE FROM ENJOYING ENTERTAINMENT IN THEIR OWN COMMUNITIES.
AS AN AFROFUTURIST YOUTH LEAD INITIATIVE THE VOICES OF OUR YOUTH INFORM OUR RESISTANCE.
HERE’S WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY
” IF YOU DON’T SEE MY BLACKNESS, YOU DON’T SEE ME. PERIODT!”
We’ve reached out to Tiny Jag and AfroFuture Fest for comment.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/afro-fest-tiny-jag-detroit-153825185.html
“WHY DO WE HAVE POC(PEOPLE OF COLOR) AND NONPOC(WHITE PEOPLE) TICKETS? I’M GLAD YOU ASKED!
EQUALITY MEANS TREATING EVERYONE THE SAME
EQUITY IS INSURING EVERYONE HAS WHAT THEY NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL
OUR TICKET STRUCTURE WAS BUILT TO INSURE THAT THE MOST MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES (PEOPLE OF COLOR) ARE PROVIDED WITH AN EQUITABLE CHANCE AT ENJOYING EVENTS IN THEIR OWN COMMUNITY(BLACK DETROIT).”
No, that actually doesn’t fly, being that the overwhelming majority of attendees would be “POC” and charging a minority more than others doesn’t begin to illustrate so called equity. Had that been the case they simply would’ve made the price affordable and without discrimination. No the real reason is that there is an agenda to target white people and that these organizations would never get away with this had it been the other way around and the only reason they do get away with it is because the real powers that be are anti white and are acting as the legal avenues to allow such discrimination and biased. Now I wonder, being that “POC” claim to be so marginalized and oppressed, who is it that has such power of legal authority to allow and back such discrimination and racism against whites so openly and blatantly? I’ll leave that one for you to figure out.
Very clearly stated, Jamal.
I’m glad they got caught and I hope the festival fails.
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More ‘get whitey’ contrivances:
Cambridge to assign white academics an ethnic minority mentor to combat racism and assist ‘institutional change’:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/07/02/cambridge-university-run-reverse-mentoring-scheme-staff-combat/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw
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Hmmmm. Maybe this will get white youth to reconsider their love of rap and hip-hop and return to a music genre that never gave a damned what color anyone was–rock. The so-called “whiteness” of rock didn’t stop rock’s greatest guitarist, Jimi Hendrix. Nor Prince. And I wonder what white rapper Eminem, who is from Detroit, thinks about all this racist garbage?
Oops! Forgot the Chambers Brothers (“Time has Come Today”)…I saw them in concert once and it was good to see a lot of blacks in the audience as well. Opening acts included the Fifth Dimension, another black rock group. Heck, rock music stations always played Aretha Franklin and even Ray Charles…Soul music would often be heard on rock music stations, and soul music was mostly uplifting for blacks. Seems like gangsta rap and hip-hop, under the guise of trying to destroy white rock music culture, is destroying black music culture as well. Keep it up, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, and the rest of you self-proclaimed devil worhsipers….