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A music festival in Detroit that charged a double fare to white spectators is changing course after a reaction that has drawn the country's attention.
Tickets for Afrofuture Fest cost US $ 40 for whites and US $ 20 for "people of color", a term used in the United States for racial minorities.
The disparity has caused the removal of an artist and the eventbrite ticket sales website has threatened to remove the page from the event.
The policy was changed Sunday after "threats from white supremacists".
In a statement posted on Twitter, Afrofuture Fest announced that it was changing registration fees to $ 20 for all participants "for the safety of our community." The organizers asked whites to donate extra money.
The previous prize structure brought a rapper, Jillian Graham, who called Tiny Jag, to announce on Twitter that she would not happen.
Ms. Graham – who identifies herself as biracial – told the New York Times that when she heard about politics, she felt "a general acknowledgment that this is simply wrong.
"No matter my race, I knew I did not agree with her," she said.
In an interview with the Detroit Metro Times, she said: "It almost looks like it was done wickedly, and unfortunately with malice, hatred, and it will obviously not be a good direction for us if we look for positive results . " change."
Ms. Graham said that she planned to perform songs that she had dedicated to her white grandmother.
"How would you like me to come to a performance and perform these songs from a music band that bears the title of that white woman you would have doubled to enter here?" she says.
"It's as if it's outrageous under so many different angles."
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On Sunday, the Eventbrite ticket vendor threatened to remove the event's list of pages, which would have prevented further ticket sales online.
"We do not allow events that require participants to pay different prices based on their protected characteristics such as race or ethnicity," the company said in a statement.
"When we became aware of the violation committed by AfroFuture Fest, we informed the creator of the event and asked him to change the price of his tickets accordingly." We also told him that he did not comply with this rule, we would completely remove the event from our site. "
The organizers of the festival did not apologize for their original plan. A founder said: "Many whites told us that they did not want to pay extra."
In a Twitter thread last week, founder Adrienne Ayers, nicknamed Numi, said the "ticket structure is set up to support the most marginalized.
"Often, when doping events take place in Detroit, the cheapest tickets are bought and then sold by people outside the community because they can pay for them first, leaving higher-priced tickets as the only options. . "
According to festival organizers, about 70 out of 200 tickets have been sold.
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