Festival Charges White Fans Double Because They Aren't 'People of Color'
Variances in ticket prices between children, adults, and seniors have been the status quo for decades now — but it seems a new addition to that age-old pay structure has emerged.
According to Sky News, a Detroit festival is pricing tickets based on the buyer’s race — “people of color” pay $10 for an early bird pass, as opposed to “non-people of color,” who will pay $20 for the same access.
Once the early-bird special is gone, tickets will be provided to “POC” for $20 and “Non-POC” for $40.
The new AfroFuture Fest ticket policy left rapper Tiny Jag “enraged,” causing the performer to pull out of the event entirely. She insisted that all promotional material with her name be removed.
And she wasn’t shy about letting people know how ridiculous the pricing structure is.
“I was immediately enraged just because I am biracial,” Tiny Jag said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“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.”
She zeroed-in on the race-based ticketing policy: “It’s non-progressive and it’s not solution-focused in my eyes,” adding, “It seems almost like it has spite, and unfortunately with spite comes hate, and that’s just not obviously going to be a good direction for us to go if we’re looking for positive change.”
The event organizers attempted to explain the pay structure on their website. “Why do we have POC (people of colour) and Non-POC (white people) tickets? I’m glad you asked! Equality means treating everyone the same.”
“Equity is insuring (sic) everyone has what they need to be successful,” they continued. “Our ticket structure was built to insure (sic) that the most marginalised communities (people of colour) are provided with an equitable chance at enjoying events in their own community (black Detroit).”
However good that explanation may be (and it’s not), the policy doesn’t appear to be legal, according to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, and privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin,” states Title II of the Civil Rights Act.
That particular section goes into even greater detail, saying that places of public accommodation shall include “any motion picture house, theater, concert hall, sports arena, stadium or other place of exhibition or entertainment.”
That could pose big trouble for the future of AfroFuture Fest.
Regardless of whether the event organizers are in trouble with the law, their blatant duplicity is unmatched. These individuals are attempting to counter preconceived racism with actual racism, at a time when America is still wounded by a racial divide.
Many on the left believe that racism is institutionalized in our government, when they can’t even say where. If institutional racism exists, we should all work to purge it from our nation.
But radical lawmakers on the left continue to play the race card, causing further damage.
America defeated slavery in just 87 years — a shorter amount of time than nearly any other country in world history.
Now, Americans of all races have equal opportunities to pursue the dream — assuming that people like the AfroFuture Fest event organizers will stop pulling stunts that only serve to further the racial divide with a new kind of racism.
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