[TheRifleman]

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.s...beat_band.html





Shokazoba's cancellation from the Hampshire Halloween event Friday night at Hampshire College, after one band member said they were criticized of being "too white" to play Afrobeat music, is reverberating on social media. Shokazoba keyboard player Jason Moses said on Saturday that the entire incident has upset the band, which he said was the target of an online campaign by approximately 30 people - a campaign that led to the band's ultimate cancellation from the annual event.
Moses said the firestorm started when someone posted an inflammatory comment online about Hampshire College hiring an all-white band to play Afrobeat music for the event. He said the band is not all white, and race should not be an issue anyway.
"It's not important to us. Music and art has the opportunity to transcend all that," Moses.
The decision to cancel the band was made by the Hype Committee, which puts on Hampshire Halloween.
The Hype Committee wrote on its Facebook page on Oct. 24: "Due to concerned students voicing their opinions about the band Shokazoba, we held community dialogue to hear what individuals had to say. As a result of the dialogue, and discomfort expressed by members of the community in person as well as by email, Facebook, and other means, we have removed Shokazoba from the lineup for Hampshire Halloween."
Elaine Thomas, Hampshire College spokeswoman, said in a statement that the student organizers of Hampshire Halloween contracted with a number of bands, and that some students "questioned the selection of one band, asking whether it was a predominantly white Afrobeat band, and expressing their concerns about cultural appropriation and the need to respect marginalized cultures."
"The students tried to be clear that they meant no disrespect to the members of the band in question, but wished to raise larger questions and deeper thought within our own community," Thomas said. "Unfortunately, voices unconnected to our campus and to the events of Hampshire Halloween drowned out a reasonable conversation about how to ensure that the entire student community could have a safe and happy evening. As can happen on social media, posts from off-campus individuals trivialized the concerns of our students and made them feel disrespected."

[TheRifleman]

If I've said it once, I've said it 1000000 times. It is only racist if white people are the ones being accused. Racism is only racism to those who do not wish to believe the truth.

Amazing.....the Negro slimes his way into the whitemans culture, trying desperately to be accepted into the whitemans world but never wanting the whiteman to be accepted into theirs.


racist scumbags.


The war continues........

[TheRifleman]

can you imagine MLK, desirous of a color blind society, witnessing the faux intellectualism and overt racism of these idiots. there's nothing worse than an over-educated, self-impressed liberal "intellectual", lecturing us on the proper nuance of racial division. i.e., when it's appropriate to discriminate against someone (this band) on the basis of racial makeup, and when it's not. who is racist and who isn't, by virtue of your "study" of racial matters. it's enough to make one puke. in fact, a color blind society is simply that; a society in which race is irrelevant to opportunity or circumstance. these are the same idiots that say that white people can't play jazz. tell that to bill evans, or mike brecker, or pat metheny, or jaco pastorius. what a bunch of staggering crap, hampshire college and the faux intellectuals that preside over this, you are vile and should be embarrassed.

[Kermit]

I heard this all started because students were trolling the band about being a white afro-funk band and it turned into a heated argument between a few students and a band member which led to their gig getting cancelled. I don't think any blacks had anything to do with any of this.

Take it for what it's worth.

[TheRifleman]

I heard this all started because students were trolling the band about being a white afro-funk band and it turned into a heated argument between a few students and a band member which led to their gig getting cancelled. I don't think any blacks had anything to do with any of this.

Take it for what it's worth.

blacks had everything to do with it