When one Detroit festival charged white concertgoers more for tickets than people of color, backlash ensued. Now the organizers have reversed their decision.
AfroFuture Fest, hosted by a Detroit youth lead initiative called AfroFuture Youth, recently announced tickets prices will be $20 for all attendees. It initially sold "early bird POC" passes for $10 and "NONPOC" passes for $20.
In a tweet, the group said it changed its pay model because it “received threats from white supremacists” and children were “subjected to seeing racist comments” across social media.
News the admission price was based on race made headlines last week when rapper Tiny Jag pulled out of the show because of the pay model.
"I was immediately enraged just because I am biracial," Tiny Jag told the Detroit Metro Times. "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."
AfroFuture Fest explained on its Eventbrite page the admission price difference was all about equity.
“Our ticket structure was built to insure (sic) that the most marginalized communities (people of color) are provided with an equitable chance at enjoying events in their own community,” the group wrote.
However, Eventbrite told CNN it doesn't "permit events that require attendees to pay different prices based on their protected characteristics such as race or ethnicity."
“In this case, we have notified the creator of the event about this violation and requested that they alter their event accordingly,” the ticketing website said in the statement. “We have offered them the opportunity to do this on their own accord; should they not wish to comply we will unpublish the event completely from our site.”
By Sunday, AfroFuture Fest had made admission prices the same for all attendees and updated its Eventbrite page.
