An LGBT Pride event for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), which is set to take place this weekend in Seattle, Washington, will charge White people who wish to enter a “$10 to $50 reparation fee”.
“All are free to attend HOWEVER (sic) this is a BLACK AND BROWN QUEER TRANS CENTERED, PRIORITIZED, VALUED, EVENT,” the literature for Taking B(l)ack Pride reads. “White allies and accomplices are welcome to attend but will be charged a $10 to $50 reparations fee that will be used to keep this event free of cost for BLACK AND BROWN Trans and Queer COMMUNITY.”
Philip Lipson and Charlette LeFevre, the organizers of Capitol Hill Pride — another LGBT pride event planned for this weekend — have taken issue with the fee structure of the Taking B(l)ack Pride event, which they say is discriminatory. In a letter, the Capitol Hill Pride organizers called on the City of Seattle to cancel the event on the grounds of “discrimination” and “reverse racism”.
“It has come to our attention that an event called Taking B(lack) Pride at the Jimi Hendrix public park on June 26th is charging whites-only admission as reparations,” the complaint reads. “We consider this reverse discrimination in its worse (sic) form and we feel we are being attacked for not supporting due to disparaging and hostile e-mails.”
“We would like you to investigate the event as a possible ethics and elections violation as Taking B(lack) Pride is hosted by Nikki Etienne—a campaign manager for Nikkita Oliver who just recently dropped out of our event Capitol Hill Pride over non-support of Take B(l)ack Pride.”
The City of Seattle’s Human Rights Commission not only denied the complaint, but also publicly shamed the pair of organizers by sharing their written complaint on social media — complete with their contact phone number still visible. The Commission then went even further, posting a copy of its response, which patronizingly urges Lipson and LeFevre to “educate” themselves on the “harm it may cause” to pursue “a free ticket” to the event.
Capitol Hill Pride sent us this note 1/2 pic.twitter.com/te62OaQPOY
— Seattle HumanRights (@SeattleHRC) June 18, 2021
Lorena Gonzales, Seattle’s City Council president and candidate for mayor, also tweeted the commission’s response, writing: “I will no longer be attending Capitol Hill Pride after reading their letter to @SeattleHRC. After a year that has taken an unbelievable toll on all of our communities, I was looking forward to this opportunity to celebrate Pride in person.”
“However, I simply cannot support an organization that is trying to stop Black people in the LGBTQ+ community from celebrating Pride in the manner that they choose,” Gonzales added.
The Taking B(l)ack Pride event, which is hosted by far-left social justice groups like Trans Women of Color Solidarity Network, Alphabet Alliance of Color, and Queer the Land, is scheduled to take place at Jimi Hendrix Park in Seattle on June 26.
Local advocacy group Safe Seattle has slammed the event’s discriminatory and racist policy, writing: “Making people pay a fee — or pay a higher fee, or excluding them from paying a fee — based on race at an event held in a public space is illegal and a violation of civil rights. This isn’t subject to debate; it’s written into our laws and the policies of ALL city departments, including Parks.”
Recently, open discrimination against White people has become increasingly blatant in cities throughout the United States, especially in those which are situated along the country’s west coast. In March, poor White families were explicitly excluded from a benefits scheme that will see $500 a month given to poor families across Oakland, California for 18 months, Remix News reported.
Last year, during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, the Seattle’s so-called “autonomous zone”, also known as CHOP or CHAZ, featured speakers demanding reparations from all White people present in the form of $10. Another event completely forbid White people from attending. The autonomous zone, which had forbidden police from entering, was eventually shut down after a number of shootings led to the two deaths, including a Black teenage male. Previously, the news media across the U.S. had tried to portray the events in the zone as “mostly peaceful” and a “summer of love”.
In another Black Lives Matter protest in Seattle last year, an activist screamed that White people should give up their property to Black people.
“Give black people back their homes. You’re sitting there comfortably — comfortable as f**k as if you didn’t help gentrify this neighborhood,” a female protester with a megaphone yelled.
