Date: Sunday, July 14, 2002 12:46 AM
From: MR executive
Subject: Letter to the Editor
Essence Music Festival = HATE FESTIVAL!
I will forever be changed by my experience at the Essence Music Festival.
NO WHITES ALLOWED! Why didn’t they tell me, why didn’t they warn me? They should of had it posted.
I have lived an experience that very few white people have ever experienced. I now know what it is like to be a minority. I didn’t like it and I have a much better understanding of what racism feels like. I am glad my experience only lasted for 3 days. I arrived in New Orleans on Wed. July 3rd with my son and his friend. This was my son’s celebration trip for graduating high school. We flew in from the Midwest excited to see some of our favorite artists perform and to have a good time. Little did we know we would be greeted with hatred and disrespect.
July 4th we arrived at the festival and handed our tickets to the ticket taker, they informed us that we would need to obtain a wrist band for our floor seats, we walked over to the table to get our wrist band when the attendant busted out “Who are you here to see, the Average White Band?” The crowd around the table seemed amused by this behavior and were chuckling at her statements. I told the attendant that was a bad thing to say and she just laughed and said “go on”.
We walked down the hallway, to the stairs leading down to the floor and I couldn’t believe some of the statements and noises I was hearing. “Tsst”, “whitie needs to go home”.
I reached the bottom of the stairs and an African American police officer was standing there, stopped me and said “I need to see your ticket and your wristband” while other African American attendees walked right on by. I thought to myself, am I in the twilight zone? Did I fall back into time? Is this a new reality TV show?
We finally made it to our seats, I thought that these acts were isolated incidents with unenlightened, ignorant people, that didn’t know better. All I wanted to do was sit back and enjoy the show. India sang, Levert entertained, this was getting good – this is why we came, to be entertained and enjoy some of our favorite artists – live. I noticed that A. J. Jamal had some very racist things to say in-between artist, I think he was trying to be funny, but it wasn’t working. He announced that they would have a White dance contest, reminded the audience several times that they were not a white audience so they should behave in a certain way. He was ignorant and racist. I guess this is the type of behavior that Essence organizers were promoting, since he was identified as hosting the main arena for the event. I noticed as the night progressed most of the entertainers were making racist remarks, at some point in their presentations. HOW SAD! If a white artist made racist remarks like this, they would have been banished from ever performing again.
Alicia Keys made it to the stage, I heard boo’s! I heard comments, from where I was sitting like: “That light skinned bitch needs to go back from wherever she came, get a real entertainer on the stage!” The Mayor of New Orleans came out and more derogatory comments “Carmel Coon”. One of the female editors, from Essence, came out with more boo’s and derogatory comments concerning her light skin color.
I realized, these people not only hate whites, they hate their own!
Cedric the entertainer came out to promote and support black stereotypes. I hear Fox TV has rewarded this behavior by giving him his own TV show. Now the whole nation can experience this type of “comedy”.
During Alicia Keys performance, an African American woman sitting one row ahead of me and one seat to the left stood up, turned around and said in a loud voice. “What are you doing here?” I said “I am here to enjoy the music” she continued getting louder “What are you doing here?” I continued to explain to her that I was just here to enjoy some of my favorite artist. She continued “What do you think your doing here?” I again stated I was here for the music. She then sat down and mumbled some obscenities. I continued to listen to the music. She then would lift her hand and bring it back over the seat and spill her drink on the floor just in front of me. I continued to stay and attempt to enjoy the show. The only people that were sitting around me were African American, no one said anything to me or the woman. Most of the people sitting anywhere close to me moved, so I was sitting with about five seats empty in all directions, except for the woman and her friend in front of me. I thought, should I stay or should I go? My son came back to our seats and he asked me if we could leave the main auditorium because of the behavior that he had experienced walking around. He felt that we were in danger and didn’t want to risk staying there. We left the main area and went to one of the super lounges where the Roots were playing. The music was great, but more racist comments. I noticed that I was standing next to Indie Arie. I thought it would be fun to meet her and let her know how much I appreciated her music. I noticed that other fans that were African American would approach her and she was welcoming. I tried to say something and she looked the other way and walked three steps to give her time to another African American fan. At that point we thought we should head back to the hotel before the event ended to avoid any other incidents.
We started walking to the taxi stand and noticed that a white woman had made a right on a left hand turn and was being flagged down by an African American police officer. The Officer pulled her out of the car, handcuffed her with her hands behind her bottom and threw her on the ground. She was screaming for help! There were at least a hundred or more African Americans standing within a few feet of her and were encouraging the officer’s abuse. We began to walk towards her to help, when a White police officer got out of a car grabbed the woman and released her from the handcuffs. My son again reminded me that we were not safe in New Orleans.
July 5th, We arrived late to the festival to avoid any incident. I wanted to see Babyface and then we had made a conscious decision to avoid the main auditorium of “HATE”. We arrived at our seats and after about 20 minutes we noticed that almost everyone in our general vicinity had moved, so we were, again, an island. We felt that this was not a safe area and then left to go to one of the smaller lounges to see De La Soul and hoped to blend in with the furniture or hang out at the sound booth to avoid incident. Music was great, more inappropriate racial statements. We left early and went back to our hotel. July 6th, We arrived late again to avoid incident and decided to avoid the main auditorium all together and stick with the smaller stages. We started with Rahsaan Patterson, great music, couple of inappropriate statements. Then it was time to see Glenn Lewis, Glenn was the only redeeming value to the entire event! He was an excellent performer, worked the crowd, truly great music and great entertainment. To my surprise, he went out on a limb and told everyone that we should respect each other’s differences. The one thing I was hoping to hear and I thought would be a theme of this entire event. After Glenn Lewis we felt we better leave before the rest of the crowd began to exit. We heard more statements like “yeah, that’s right you better leave”. How disappointing!
Throughout these 3 days I spoke with locals trying to gain some insight as to what we had experienced. I heard from some of the Caucasians that they referred to the festival as the N***** festival. I then had a better understanding that not only the African Americans were racist. I understood, at least in part, where some of this hate towards me was coming, even though, I was being judged solely by the color of my skin.
I have made a decision that I will never attend another Essence (HATE) Festival and that I will never step foot in New Orleans again, unless required by work.
Let me tell you about me. I am an executive at one of America’s Global corporations. (I wish to remain anonymous, for my own safety)
I oversee the budget for my company that sponsors major concerts, diversity events, radio advertising, diversity scholarships – I am someone that does not stick out in a crowd or draws drama. I am kind and warm. I have been an advocate for diversity for twenty plus years. I was inspired by Martin Luther King several years ago, he changed my life and enlightened me to understand that we should treat people with respect, dignity and fairness.
I am now concerned, concerned for me! I don’t care about the Essence HATE promoters and the ill behaved people we experienced. Will I make the right decisions, without prejudice, moving forward? Will I be able to forgive the ignorant? Will I treat people with the same dignity and respect I did before this experience? I truly have experienced racism. What will I do with it? Hate? Learn? Become enlightened? Get even? Retaliate?
I am concerned for my son. How will this experience affect him?
Right now I am angry. Why didn’t someone come to my rescue? I would have never tolerated this if the roles were reversed. How can I get the $5,000 dollars back that it cost us to attend?
Who can I sue? Essence?
I hope I do the right thing!
I wanted to remind you of what Martin Luther King said:
“But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”
“We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.”
“The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.”
“We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead.”
“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”