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.."

How silly.

I am old enough to remember the 80s. Bands like Culture club played reggae fusion and Boy George had braided hair. Punk bands like the clash or the Slits used reggae rhythm in their songs too.

There really is nothing wrong with different cultures influencing one another and merging various elements. It has always happened in music.

I think there are people who choose to be offended all the time for the most ridiculous reasons.

To complain about ''Cultural appropriation'' is just lunacy. Without it you would not have rock and roll (influenced by Blues musicians) for example or the variety in food, fashion and so on that we have today.

This has nothing to do with racism which is of course abhorrent.

The problem is that we are indulging this silliness rather than standing up to those who have made being perpetually offended into a profession...

I have no problem with gay roles in films being played by straight actor (or gay actors playing straight roles), that's why it is called acting. And with people playing whatever music and wearing whatever style they wish. I am seriously tired with the types who are trying to censor and control everything...

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

@MrsTerryPratchett actually the vast majority of the books had animals or mythical creatures on the cover. Of the ones that had humans on the front it seemed quite equally divided between red, blonde, brown, black hair, maybe a few more red heads. Getting rid of the princess books would just get rid of a lot of the human focused book covers.

You think a book not featuring a blonde haired blue eyed character is a political bias? That's not a dogwhistle is a fucking foghorn.

But there is, I just googled it! Loads of sites dedicated to it.

Ok, what I should have said is that it is not a term that would be used by black people generally.

That's not a dogwhistle is a fucking foghorn

Call it what you will. I'm just not spending my money on companies who think I'm not worthy of being represented.

Nicely put. I absolutely agree.

A book not featuring a blonde haired blue eyed character doesn't think you are not worthy of being represented. It just doesn't happen to have any characters that look that very specific way.

Do you really think a blue eyed child can't identify with someone who has brown eyes?

That's utterly ridiculous.
The world is turning completely mad.

The good sense and push back on this thread is so refreshing not to mention massively informative at times - historical details around Celts and Vikings in particular - thank you for it.

Can we move on from the bun fight over blonde haired blue eyed children, it's getting a bit obsessive and weird. Let children are children, who cares what colouring they have, treat them as individuals regardless of skin and hair colour. Book publishers should focus less on the woke and more on high quality stories. Glancing at the band, it looks like cultural appropriation to me. We can be sensitive to these things and come from a respectful and aware position rather than remaining comfortably ignorant about racism. It's not the 80s anymore, thankfully and there is a middle way.

Let children be children

There is no such thing as "rasta hair". Sorry if you do not think that language is important. But it really is. Using the right terms is important.

It is important, you're right. It's respectful to be informed about the subjects you discuss and have opinions on. However taking offence and issuing shaming, corrective instructions to people who get it wrong is just as bad. We seem to be in a place where that is seen as acceptable when discussing cultural matters and it really isn't.

God this is such tiresome nonsense.

These purity spirals are so self defeating.

Glancing at the band, it looks like cultural appropriation to me

I hope customers avoid this brasserie like the plague, it will teach the owners not to be so wet and lame. What about the diners who did want to enjoy the show, had paid for their meal and had their evening ruined?

There are multiple reasons Netflix are losing money, I doubt one of their most popular shows having non-white characters is one of them

Bridgerton gets incredible viewing figures and has been renewed for multiple seasons. What a stupid suggestion.

This. I looked up Bridgerton. It has been a huge success for Netflix. So obviously a lot of people do not share that posters view, thankfully.

Hope you're all enjoying the glorious cultural revolution. How long before we get to march the offenders out into the street for a beating?

@apintortwo

You live in a majority white country. You and your children and whoever you’re talking about have representation everywhere.

I suggest you find Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk but to give you a flavour of why more brown people are allowed on books, here’s an excerpt:

Adichie grew up in Nigeria. In her presentation, she describes herself as a long-time storyteller and early reader. The children's books that were available to her then were British and American. They had characters who had blonde hair and blue eyes. They talked about the weather and drank ginger beer. When Adichie started writing, her characters and plots matched those in these stories, even though her own everyday life didn't resemble this. She says that while these stories 'stirred her imagination,' they also gave her a 'single story of what books are.' When she discovered African stories through authors like Chinua Achebe, the 'father of African literature,' she realized that books can be about the places and characters that she recognized - those with the 'skin color of chocolate' and 'kinky hair.'

Agree that this is silly. There are white Jamaicans and Rastafarians. Bob Marleys dad was white. No one owns any type of music and we should have cultural freedom to express ourselves regardless of race.

I think the world of the arts is really screwed up at the moment. Confusion reigns, and I'm just waiting it out until things settle down.

What is now called 'cultural appropriation' was, just a few years ago, regarded favourably as participating/taking an influence from other cultures. I knew of someone (White British and competitively right-on) who was indignant that some participants in the Chinese NY celebrations in China Town in London were European in appearance. Horrors! How very dare they!

Personally I can't see what's wrong or offensive (a word that's the curse of our times, surely...) about, say, adopting hairstyles and dress of other cultures in a positive way (not to make mock, obviously). it used to be fine, and it used to be looked on as progressive but trends and fashions change.

What about cooking curries/stir fries at home? Is that OK?

In the world of acting there's a view that only gay actors can now play gay characters. But if actors had to have experienced all that their character has experienced...how would that work? They used to do careful research and then basically, act. Yet this view is very strongly held by some people - but my question is, where would that view take us if you follow it to its logical conclusion? It's surely about the nature of acting and performing.

There's a huge and very sensitive controversy about race in the acting profession. A few years ago I enjoyed an all-black RSC Hamlet, and I usually think colour-blind casting works - with one exception: when it deals with a real, historic character such as Anne Boleyn. I couldn't get past that fact that we have a record of what Anne Boleyn looked like, and she wasn't black. I couldn't suspend disbelief for the recent TV series which cast a black actor in that part. You wouldn't want to see a white person playing Dr Martin Luther King - we know what he looked like and his race was crucial in his story.

It's all really confused and contradictory, though. If black actors can play supposedly white (say, Dickens or Jane Austen) characters, which of course they can and do, then should a white actor who's just burning to play Othello be allowed to do so? No? I would probably agree, because race is very relevant in that part, but nevertheless, I think there's a huge amount of confused thinking going on at the moment. I'm hoping someone will clear the muddy waters soon using both common sense and humanity.

CulturePigeon You have made some really good, and interesting points in your post.

On hair: my one DS (they are all european/asian heritage, don’t look asian but has name) has amazing curly brown/blonde hair that Mats itself into fabulous dreadlocs. He is 17 and has a kind of afro, but bigger curls. He will brush it occasionally, it is almost down to his waist now.
i will let him know promptly that he may be perceived as racist.

my DD had light yellow hair with less curls, but she had normally forming dreads (ASD, no brushing for a few years there. Now shorter and brushed every day).

my other DS has completely straight burgundy hair - bright Orange when he was a kid. No knots, scarcely a wave on his head.

Hair is hair and music is music.
in the words of Ian McKellen: you know I am not really a wizard? I just pretend to be one.