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.."

Yes, I agree. With regard to actors playing roles, if race is irrelevant to the story, then anyone can play it. Likewise gender…….although trickier. If, however, it’s central, then it would be too distracting eg putting a black man in the role of a white slave owner. It would confuse the story and add a nuance that was not there.
Additionally, if straight men are not allowed to play gay roles, then gay men should not play straight roles…….which is ridiculous and we never would have had the Hot Priest…….!

... and this is how you segregate, entice violence and lure people into ignorance.

God this kind of shit passes me off. I'm mixed race. 1 white British parent and 1 mixed (black and white) Jamaican parent. I already feel like I don't belong anywhere or in any group. If I refer to being "black" or even "mixed" people generally don't believe me a bc i look sort of southern European, but if i say white im denying my heritage. this just enforces it all the more.

Rasta is short for Rastafarian, which if you've spent any time with Rastas you will have heard a lot

Rastafarians nearly always have dreadlocked hair, aka Rasta hair, or Rasta style hair if the person being referred to is not Rastafarian.

An update from a member of the band - they don't want to be allowed to play only folk music. Plus slave ancestry:
switzerlandtimes.ch/people/unfortunately-our-critics-remained-invisible/

He's right, he might have ancestors who were slaves but even if he didnt, its about what music he wants to create.

And he is also right that the complainers are invisible.

He’s spot on. You simply can’t assume you know a person’s ancestry by looking at them (im super pale but also have ancestors who were slaves) and of course music can’t be put into culturally distinct categories only to be played by certain people.

And just to add; there were fairly high profile Black slave owners in the US as well.
and there were White slaves, in particular Irish (and some Scottish) indentured labourers.

in the Pacific in the 1850’s I think it was, some had a group of 120-150 sacandinavian slaves, who then mutinated after about 18 months into their 5-10 yr «contract». Due to luck, and luck only, their mutiny was successful.

knowing this does not detract from the horror that was the Atlantic slavetrade. But it shows that it is pointless to police hairstyles and music according to «race».