White musicians had Rasta hair and played Reggae music. Concert stopped.

[Markedforsl]

I'm including a translation of an article in a Berlin newspaper, about a concert which took place (or should have taken place) in Switzerland.
A band of white musicians played, among other things, some reggae music. Some of the band had rasta style hair.
Some concert-goers expressed "discomfort" with the situation to the organisers. The organisers stopped the concert and have made abject apologies.

YANBU: White musicians playing reggae music and even wearing dreadlocks while doing so is okay, and doesn't justify the immediate termination of a concert.
YABU: Only Jamaicans should play reggae music and/or have dreadlocks. If white people do either of those things it is racism and should not be allowed. Innocent concert-goers need to be protected from this.

"As reported by several media in Switzerland, the dialect band Lauwarm performed at the Brasserie Lorraine in Bern on 18 July. The five musicians were standing in for another band that had cancelled. The repertoire of the group Lauwarm includes reggae, indie, world and pop. But their colourful programme was not well received - apparently mainly because of the hairstyles. Concertgoers expressed "discomfort with the situation" to the organisers, report Neue Zürcher Zeitung and 20 Minuten.
The concert was stopped after the complaints. In a statement, the organiser now apologised for "awareness gaps". The audience should have been "better protected" before the performance. As the Brasserie Lorraine cooperative announced on Facebook on Monday, the discomfort of the visitors had been related to the topic of "cultural appropriation". That is: the band Lauwarm is criticised for being white musicians, wearing partly rasta haircuts and playing Jamaican reggae music, although they themselves have never experienced the racial exclusion of Jamaicans.
The organisers apologised "to all the people for whom the concert has caused bad feelings". They said they were responsible because they had invited the band. "We failed to deal with it enough in advance and to protect you." The lengthy apology to all those who suffered ends with the words, "Not a millimetre of room for Racism and other discrimination.."

What a load of bollocks, late 70s/80s the two tone label, the specials, the beat, the selector, produced some of the best Ska/reggae records ever. No culture misappropriation noises just great music. 😁

YABU to refer to 'rasta style hair'.

And 'locs' preferred term nowadays.

The newspaper article refers to rasta hair.

You're part of the problem

OP - Sad news that Switzerland who I always assumed were quite sensible have turned lunatic.

So glad I was a teenager in the 80's and we could play, dance and sing to whatever music we wanted. Loved seeing the Brummie ska bands, no one cared about what colour they were or what hairstyles they had. The Clash played reggae too, no one was complaining. Great times to see live bands then

‘Rasta style hair’??

I think society is becoming more and more polarised by cultural splitting like this.

Where as years ago, there was a good level of inclusion in all groups and communities, with a view for that to improve even further, there is a trend now to encourage divisiveness and separateness.

Also the use of words and language to put people down, a good example in this thread, accusations of using the 'wrong' word, undermining the OP, invalidating their point by using language as a weapon.

Absolutely!!

I think it's mad. People can have mixed heritage backgrounds/different cultiral upbringings and who are we to look at someones appearance/skin colour and decide what their heritage and culture should be.

People have always learned/adapted culture from other cultures.

In a world where there is war and climate change and possible looming famine I think it is mad to get wound up about hair that is sincerely and respectfully worn. No one owns a hairstyle.

God that's sad. Where I grew up, people from all backgrounds were into reggae and some actually followed the Rastafarian faith. None were Jamaican.

A person doesnt have to be Jamaican at all, or from any country/nation/heritage

As someone said above, hairstyles are not owned by any person or group.

Neither is a belief system.

I can imagine most people dont even know what Rastafarianism is in the first place.

The uncomfortable complainers were being racist:
There are white Jamaicans
There are white Rastafarians
There are white Reggae musicians

“Jamaicans of African descent represent 76.3% of the population, followed by 15.1% Afro-European, 3.4% East Indian and Afro-East Indian, 3.2% Caucasian, 1.2% Chinese and 0.8% other.”

Perhaps the most famous Jamaican, Rastafarian Reggae musician was Bob Marley who was mixed race: 50/50 African and White.

It's fucking insane. Pretty much all popular music played by white people, going back to Elvis and the Beatles was inspired by black music. You'd have to pretty much ban white people from making music except for classical music if this continues.

You'd have to pretty much ban white people from making music except for classical music if this continues

And then you'd need to ban that in the spirit of decolonisation.

Yes, this. My DP is Jamaican but not black (he's also not white, his ancestors were from India)

Well said!

I assume the complainers were also unaware of Jamaica's national motto - "Out of many, one people", referring to the various cultures and races which make up the country.

Well, it does raise the question why white artists get the fame and money, while the black artists playing the same music don't....

When you say Jamaican, what do you mean? There are lots of different cultures and colours in Jamaica and it’s a very inclusive culture overall. I’m assuming you mean black Jamaica, but the indigenous people of Jamaica are Taino.

This stuff is nuts but some sensible comments here (in-between the language police) Where will it stop? I'm so glad I grew up in the 80s.

I work in the charity sector and in the last year, I've been invited to no less than three EDI race seminars online where there were breakout rooms designated by...skin colour. I find this appallingly racist. My sister is half Pakistani, I'm white, we'd not be allowed in the same room! What message are we giving young people? John McWhorter calls it woke racism. He's not wrong.

All this is getting very tiresome and does nothing to promote racial harmony. What is so wrong about embracing and enjoying different cultures?

Like who?

I'd be interested to know the backgrounds of the audience that complained.

Sounds like they were doing the organisers a favour by stepping in last minute! We're going down a route now of only gay actors can play gay people, bisexual people act as bisexual people.. and on and on. I mean where does cultural appreciation end and cultural appropriation begin...?

I am a ska/reggae fan. People from all cultures play and appreciate this style of music and although the Rastafari movement had its start in Jamaica, people all over the world are Rastafarians. I do feel like we now run the risk of going too far the other way and what a shame that a band who has possibly travelled quite a way, and who were excited to play, weren't able to and any fans who went there to see them lost out too. Reggae and ska does not get the love and attention it deserves as a genre and if the band did get to play their whole set that day, someone might have been introduce to genre and explored other artists, many who are black , these artists will have missed out too