Lido Pimienta Speaks Out After Racism Controversy at Halifax Pop Explosion Festival

Submitted by Mastodon on Sat, 2018-11-03 21:14

Article here. Please note: The article is dated 10/31/2017, not 2018. This is a year-old story. Still, for amusement if nothing else, I'll leave it up. Excerpt:

'I started asking men specifically to go to the back of the room because in my 15+ years of attending shows, both on stage and in the audience, men make it unsafe for me to be in such spaces.

From the audience’s point of view, [men] for the most part will not think twice before they put themselves right in front of you. I am a short woman, so I always have to show up very early to be able to enjoy the music, to see the acts... From the stage point of view, I noticed how most men who plant themselves at the front, they tend to overpower ME. Their presence usually at my own show is a threatening one and I have had men grab me, grab my hands, grab my waist, scream "TE AMO MAMACITA." My show is all about high energy and high feminine power, so I can see for some men, my energy reads "sexual" and they feel like my show is FOR THEM, when in fact, my show if anything, is for WOMXN.'

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"To make a long story short, one of the friends of the collective, a yoga pants-wearing white woman, approached me in [a] rage after I called them out for their weird show and racist display [and] apologized to the people who went to see my show who were offended by them. This yoga pants-wearing white woman approached me and SPAT ON MY FACE. She humiliated me and the venue asked ME to leave. She got to stay and be consoled by her friends. And do you think the venue, the collective, or even herself apologized to me? No. They did not. Instead, they kept screaming at me and my friends, crying and specifically telling me that they can perform "mor lam" music because THEY GO TO THE FESTIVAL EVERY YEAR... What festival? How does that even make sense?"

First, I have no idea who she is. If I happen to listen to music, it's probably an accident. I am not a music person. I am not a rabid consumer of pop culture. I have only one noteworthy hobby/interest: fucking. Also, I like cats.

So I had never heard of her. But at first as I started reading this, I was predictably annoyed. Then it segued to sort of bemused. Then when I hit "yoga pants-wearing white woman", I was all in for amused.

Can you just imagine what being in the presence of this house on fire must be like? I mean, it'd be a little like watching Abbott and Costello do "Who's On First?" live.

I confess to having a sick, perverse, masochistic curiosity about this woman's show. I wonder what'd happen if one day her show consisted entirely of white men? Would she even perform?

I can see her waking up screaming in a cold sweat, a dream-nightmare tormenting her: she goes out in stage and looking back at her is an audience of white men, all of them middle-aged, wearing Perry Mason-esque suits. Or maybe all men in military uniforms.

It's almost worth trying to make it happen.

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Submitted by Matt on Sun, 2018-11-04 02:30