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.."

They were playing in Bern - in Switzerland.

Well, no they're famous infamous probably not what they had expected 😆.

It's an outright lie because anyone who has access to Google can look at any toyshop or bookshop and find multiple versions of books or dolls with blue eyed blonde haired little girls. Or just white kids as your comment is now about obvious political comment or bias.

And I find it outrageous as in 'shockingly bad or excessive' to claim that toys and books are no longer made for your family member because books don't include characters who look like her and dolls apparently don't exist like this.

I wish the OP had put a link.

I've been googling but hard to find info. Seems the gig was in brasserie Lorraine in bern. And they did some songs took a break. Manager said some people uncomfy and band decided not to go back on.

Anyone else got more info? Links etc? I really wish OP had given a link or 2.

So on the face of it. Swiss band of bunch of young chaps as per earlier pic, style is UB40. It's Switzerland. Don't know how many on thread have been there/ out on evening etc. It's pretty... Staid.

Standard Swiss folk are moved to say hmmm to manager. (Unconfirmed, the restaurant has not commented). The commenting on numbers feels pretty odd tbh.

Band flounce off, essentially. Incident is reported essentially not much at all anywhere, yet somehow finds a place on MN and comments go off in interesting directions...

Op! Do you have some links? I've been googling a lot. What made you notice this in a Berlin paper, about something that happened in Switzerland? I mean it's pretty obscure.

I did check out one of the bands videos, I don't think I'll buy the album. Do you like their music?

Couldn’t agree more

If a load of Swiss people out for a meal in a restaurant complained then they must have been pretty bad.

The fact that the band themselves decided not to do rest of set after... Something. They weren't 'cancelled'they cancelled themselves.

From what I can find on Google which isn't much and I don't speak German/ Swiss German (?) so that makes things tricky.

It's an outright lie because anyone who has access to Google can look at any toyshop or bookshop

Well, if I have to start surfing the net extensively in order to find something suitable it means there's a problem, surely. Also I resort to high-street shops (think The Works or Waitrose) so that I can read the book before giving it to her (for this same reason)

I'm not sure about dolls as I want to give her books, not dolls

This thread is fascinating.

Who would have imagined that a post referencing a Berlin report about a band in a restaurant in Switzerland would get so much traction, and such wide ranging comments!

I'm really interested to know where and when this was '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.'.

And what age is the relative with no children's books with blond girls? Waterstones has nothing?

Ime there are blonde girls and women everywhere you look in ads, on covers, on TV, children's books... Unless toddler age then usually animals...

What a wide ranging thread.

Here's another article spelling out what happened - they were told to stop playing because of guests complaining of cultural appropriation. I came across the story because I have my Microsoft screen in German.
www.20min.ch/story/band-muss-konzert-abbrechen-weil-weisse-saenger-rastas-tragen-770725450313

Yes I saw that earlier it wouldn't translate for me though which is annoying.

The top results were all 20 seconds. The one I found in English said they called it quits. I'm not sure why that page and the others on that site won't translate. Annoying.

Oops 20 mins I meant. The site you link. Not sure why won't translate.

In the end I'm not sure how a Berlin news report on a band not finishing their set in a Swiss restaurant, leads to, well a lot of the posts on this thread!

Is what went on in the restaurant Lorraine, definitely linked to the apparent dearth of books in UK bookshops with any female blonde child characters?

Apparently so. Why are white blonde girls and women so desperately under represented in UK society? One to ponder on.

Huh? You only expose your relative to books that feature characters that look like her? You do realise she will meet all sorts of people throughout her life, you cannot shield her from the diversity of the human race and I can't imagine why you'd want to.
I can honestly say I have never ever chosen books for my DD based on what the characters look like. That's ridiculous!

I am struggling to understand why a parenting website in the UK needs to have a position on a completely obscure band (not) playing in Switzerland, reported only it seems in German in a newspaper in Berlin.

Have we really got to the point where Disgusted of Cheam has to trawl unheard of stories in diverse languages in order to be oUtRaGeD at political correctness gone mad or wokery?

My theory, having seen the picture and knowing they were a late substitution, is that they were a bit shit and the organisers said they had to get off the stage because of ummmmm complaints. They look like a band whose songs are 10 minutes long with a bongo solo.

🙄I call it bollocks. There are "white" Jamaicans. And you can have locks in any type of hair. Seriously. What is that ? The guys could be Rastafarians for all we know, which is a religion. The one who stopped the group has such a lack of culture, and the one writing the article knows nothing. Ja will not be happy me tellin you.

The political agenda to erase blonde girls at the works... There were more but I can only upload three images. Posts like above remind me of that prussian blue mum on Louis theroux. They have to say this stuff for the kids, to protect the kids, of course, think of the kids.

I did actually realise that blonde DD only had dolls of colour when she was about 4. Hand-me-downs from her Jamaicans who obviously were looking at representation for their DD. I don't think she's scarred for life. Although she does dye her hair!!!!!!

This.
Fine analysis. Bad music should always be stopped ASAP.

I don't know where Jamaicans came from. MN or my laptop keeps cutting out the middle of phrases and that was particularly unfortunate. I wrote 'Jamaican cousins'.

OP has explained where she found the story and why.

not like you to trot out nonsense like "disgusted of Cheam". Pity.

I took too long to post, my post was aimed at apintortwo. I don't think family hand me downs could be a political agenda?

This is what I found too. It looks like too much has been made of what is essentially a band flounce.

I took too long to post, my post was aimed at apintortwo. I don't think family hand me downs could be a political agenda?

I was being facetious @TwentyOneTwentyTwo trying to show that the only way a poor, desperate blonde child could be deprived of the vast hordes of stuff which represents them (and it's EVERYWHERE) is by a very weird coincidence. The tone was lost I think.

If you removed all the princess nonsense there would be fewer blonde girls. Still far from none though.

I did actually realise that blonde DD only had dolls of colour when she was about 4. Hand-me-downs from her Jamaicans who obviously were looking at representation for their DD. I don't think she's scarred for life. Although she does dye her hair!!!!!!

So it's ok for your friends to look representation for her daughter but if I do the same it's wrong apparently. Got it. Also why does your daughter feel the need to dye her hair?