Poll: How racist was he?

[Kadoodle]

It could swing either way. One would need to witness the situation to truly judge. Although I do think he could have been a mensch anyways and played a single song.

 

[Titan Buttons]

His job is to make sure that as many people as possible can dance to the music and he even said that the reason was that it wouldn't be popular, it's not racist he's just doing what he was hired to do

 

[dkyros]

Also, have you ever been in a situation where you thought someone was unfairly being labeled a racist. Or have you yourself faced racism?

I've been in both of those situations (including touring Australia with a part-Aboriginal punk band - fun times, and great way to learn about racism firsthand), but I've also been in a different, more relevant situation: I've been a club DJ.

People coming up to me and asking me to play "their music" happens all the time, and over 90% of the time it's stuff that the other people there aren't there for and won't want to listen to. Race has nothing to do with it, musical style does. I don't care how much I love you and your culture and your music, (just pulling an example out my ass here) Brazillian speed metal just isn't going to fit into my 80s industrial set, it will make people walk out the door. If it was a whole audience full of metalheads, yeah fine, but if not - hell no. As a DJ, you are paid to keep people happy and dancing/drinking/socialising/whatever, not to make them go somewhere else, so you play what that audience wants to hear. Maybe if it was 3am and the club was closing, I'd play a random song only one punter wants right at the end just to tell people it's time to leave now. Other than that - no, are you mad? Get that music out of here, I'm busy.

You bring up a lot of good points and this is what I believe the DJ was trying to do. I said I would play the song only bc I know the guy personally, but if your paid to give ppl a good time then your going to play a certain genre of music that most people enjoy.

On the first point, was it mostly people who came to your shows or was it actually the venues that you experienced discrimination from. Only reason I ask is bc I'm from the US so I don't really know how aboriginals or the torres straight islanders are treated (hope I spelt that right). Its shitty either way, just want to get a feel how bad it is for natives.

 

[Serving UpSmiles]

Nah he's just an asshole

 

[Uskis]

I generally feel like people should respect a DJ's set, but if he is the kind of bastard that plays lady gaga and has no artistic integrity, he should shut up and play what the people who pay him asks him to play. It's not necessarily racist what he did, if me and me friends who dress like punks came to a DJ like that and asked him to play some hardcore or oi!, or stuff like that, I guarantee the response is gonna be the same.

 

[ReaperzXIII]

Hell no this isn't racist, 1 bad song can ruin the entire vibe of party, I remember on a school trip last year in Spain everyone started dancing to a song then they switched it to some 5 year old head shoulders, knees and toes song and everyone was like WTF?!

As people have already said it is the DJs job to gauge the crowd and figure out a good playlist, I listen to rock sometimes but I don't think it is good dance music, instead for dancing I think reggae, soca etc... would be better so if everyone was dancing to reggae I wouldn't suddenly switch to rock because 1 or 2 people requested it.

If the the majority requested it and he still said no then he is an asshole

Please stop pulling the race card on everything otherwise when things really are racist I can't complain because of the desensitization

 

[kittii-chan 300]

this is not racist... not at all... if they think that is racism they dont really deserve to have their song played anyway...

also,

i was unfairly labeled racist because a little kid who happened to be mixed race was being a little brat and running around causing trouble for people so i told him to "stop being a monkey (comeon i cant just go around swearing at little kids)" and i got called racist in return

 

[BonsaiK]

I've been in both of those situations (including touring Australia with a part-Aboriginal punk band - fun times, and great way to learn about racism firsthand)

was it mostly people who came to your shows or was it actually the venues that you experienced discrimination from. Only reason I ask is bc I'm from the US so I don't really know how aboriginals or the torres straight islanders are treated (hope I spelt that right). Its shitty either way, just want to get a feel how bad it is for natives.

Actually it was neither. People at the shows and venues have both always been great (oh except that one time we were booked with a skinhead oi band, but that was still great in its own "glad we didn't get our asses kicked" way). It's other things. Like when you go to book the motel room, we got the sound engineer to do it because he was the only white guy with us (I can pass for white but it's funnier to get him to do it, and besides he's getting paid more than us so he's gotta earn his money somehow), otherwise they ask for huge deposits because they think we're gonna trash the rooms. Or the weird glare you get everywhere you go. Or getting stopped by the police constantly in Queensland because one of the guys in the band looks like an Aboriginal Bob Marley, so of course we must be drug dealers. Most extreme example - being told to "move on" in a food court - the crime? Playing chess at one of the tables (yes we had food too). If we were some 60 year old white guys I doubt that would have happened.

 

[Blatherscythe]

He plays a lot of Lady Gaga and shit like that. He wasen't being racist, he's just a douche.

 

[MEEBO17]

Its hard to say, but I have to go with not really. I'm sure he didn't mean it as a race thing, or to purposely offend the couple. The DJ knew what music everyone at the party would like, not the couple, since its his job.

 

[-Samurai-]

This stuff right here is the majority of "racism". People finding it in places where it doesn't exist.

Actual racist actions are few and far between(which is great), but crap like this happens all the time, and there's always someone that thinks that because the two have different skin tones, one of them is being racist.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

if hes a professionally hired Dj dont fuck with him about music,

This. DJs are not some sort of old style Jukebox. You tell them what the event is and they figure out what sort of music gets played.

 

[DarkRyter]

I think the real racist in this situation is reality.

Cause I mean, really. Hispanic people into salsa music? That's just pandering to stereotypes.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Eh, kinda hard to tell.

Salsa music is not popular with everyone, and he was probably entirely right in saying that no one else would like it, or at least not to the degree that they would. When you have a dancefloor of people to please and a selection of hits that have proven again and again to be succesful in getting them entertained, you play the hits. I don't even like artists like Lady Gaga, Kesha, Lily Allen etc, but if I've been out with a big crowd and everyone has started dancing it's music that I feel comfortable enough with to go along with it, partly because I acknowledge that my preferred music, classic rock and roll, is equally not fun for everyone.

So his actions in not playing it are totally justified.

However, depending on how he intended 'your music' to be intepreted, he might have been being personally racist. If he just meant your music as in 'music which I have not approved for my list' then see above. If he meant 'your music' as in 'the music of the Hispanic people' then yeah, racist. Still probably right, but racist. I suspect though that he would have said the exact same thing to me had I brought along a CD of Rainbow's greatest hits. Would that have made him racist again British people?

 

[Nouw]

If he had played that song, he would have probably been yelled at and kicked out.

He did the semi-right thing and no he isn't racist.

 

[DefinitelyPsychotic]

Wow.

Just because the couple were an ethnicity other than white, it was automatically racist, right? Give me a break dude! Just another sorry ass excuse to bring up racism...

 

[Bobbity]

That's not racist; that's his job. The other guy showed himself for a whiny little brat, playing the race card the moment he failed to get what he wanted.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

uh no not at all?

if you really are dying to hear your own music then go ahead and leave, the DJ was hired for a specific reason, which is to play party/dance music for the majority.


edit (dsiregarding i hate country music as it is) if i brought a country music cd up to the stand and he said i'm not playing that, there is no way in hell i'd think "RACIST!"

seriously, just because your not white doesn't instantly scream racism

 

[DefinitelyPsychotic]

whiny little brat playing the race card the moment he failed to get what he wanted.

Yep.