A Detroit rapper has pulled out of a local music festival after discovering its race-based pricing policy.
AfroFuture Fest is insisting that “non-people of colour” must pay US$20 for early bird tickets while “people of colour” are being charged US$10.
Jillian Graham, aka Tiny Jag, told CTVNews.ca that she was “very angry” when she discovered the two-tier pricing.
“Initially I was very angry because of my own lineage, race and ethnicity,” said Graham, who describes herself as mixed-race.
“I reached out to get clarification and proceeded to withdraw from the show and any promotional material. They considered their justification to be black equity,” she said.
“(Equity) is a goal I can stand behind but it’s the means I have a problem with,” Graham added.
The festival is due to take place over the weekend of August 3 and 4. It bills itself as a “home for arts and healing.”
Organizers provided reasoning for their pricing policy on the Eventbrite webpage where the tickets are being sold.
“Our ticket structure was built to ensure that the most marginalized communities (people of colour) are provided with an equitable chance at enjoying events in their own community (black Detroit),” it states.
“We’ve seen too many times orgasmic events happening in Detroit and other POC populated cities and what consistently happens is people outside of the community benefiting most from affordable ticket prices because of their proximity to wealth.”
“This cycle disproportionately displaces black and brown people from enjoying entertainment in their own communities,” the statement goes on.
Graham told the Detroit Metro Times that she was “enraged” that the pay model would have affected her family personally, specifically her white grandmother.
British rapper Zuby was among those slamming the pricing structure on Twitter.
“Well done intersectional radicals. You've become the very racists you claim to stand against,” he tweeted.
