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Several local LGBT groups including Equality Ohio and Stonewall Democrats of Central Ohio have started a campaign to push for the cancellation of the upcoming Buju Banton show scheduled to take place at The LC on October 3rd. Messages from these groups have been re-posted on Facebook earlier today and are denouncing the reggae musician as homophobic for song lyrics that call for the murder of homosexuals. Some of the lyrics were also posted here on The Buckeye State Blog.
Update: 9/11/09 6:30PM – The show has been canceled.
Several venues in other cities have already canceled tour dates for Buju Banton, citing similar outcries from other LGBT groups and activists. Those canceled cities include San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Dallas and Houston.
Below is some additional information about the musician from a recent article in On Top Magazine:
In his native Jamaica, where being gay is punishable by 10 years in prison, anti-gay violence is rife and typically tolerated by the authorities. In 2004, Banton was tried and acquitted on charges that he participated in the beating of six gay men.
Both Equality Ohio and Stonewall Democrats of Central Ohio are encouraging people to politely call or email Amy Cooper, The Marketing Director at PromoWest Promotions at 614-461-5483 or amy@promowestlive.com to expression their opinions on this scheduled event.
He was proven innocent…in Jamaica.
What does that mean? The justice system in Jamaica is favorable to reggae artists? Quite the opposite. You can’t swing a dead cat in JA without hitting a reggae artist so there’s really no special treatment. In fact, they’re probably treated most harshly due to their relation to weed, etc, which is frowned upon by the authorities.
My bad, he wasn’t proven innocent. One of the victims lost use of an eye and then chargers were dismissed for lack of evidence.
How good is Chris Browns career now that he beat Rhianna? I’m not being sarcastic, I’m actually wondering cause I don’t know if he has sold out concerts every week or what?
Maybe next time he comes to town he will set up shop on public land.
Then what could be done?
I’d say hold something similar to the Phelps-A-Thon…
For every minute he’s there, raise money for GLBT youth.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/3/704242/-Using-Fred-God-Hates-Fags-Phelps-to-Raise-Money-for-LGBT-Youth
come on greenhouse your not that naive are you…… celebrities get treatment no matter where we are. thats my point.
I was waiting for GH to reply, well said GH.
@ Walker I think free speach factors into the situation, but not as much as where these LGBT folks may have been when they were 15 and things they may have said or done. I think people should be able live past a mistake and I also think folks judge this situation with a huge lack of evidence to fairly act out against this artist. I hope for many reason this show gets rescheduled and I also hope at least one LGBT person actually shows up to witness the show.
I have many gay friends, but dont agree with everything they do on a moral level. In the same respect I give each person a direct chance to prove themselves over any myth or rumor. I would assume these people who act on inclusiveness would also grant the same respect even if to a celebrity and especially if were talking someone from a differenct culture.
This isn’t a free speech issue because the government didn’t cancel his shows. A company heard complaints and distanced themselves from someone they didn’t want to be associated with.
And forget the song he wrote when he was 15, there’s still the beating charges from just a few years ago. People might forgive him, just as people might forgive Chris Brown for beating Rhianna, but where’s Bantons interview explaining that he doesn’t REALLY expect people to go out and kill gays.
And I found it interesting that there’s a documentary called “The Darker Side of Black” by Isaac Julien that explores the homophobia expressed by reggae artists. Julien is that guy that did the BaadAsssss Cinema blaxploitation documentary from a few years back.
The New York Times review of “The Darker Side of Black”:
A Darker Side of Black (1994)
January 6, 1995
FILM REVIEW; Examining Gay Issues in Racial Settings
“The Darker Side of Black,” Isaac Julien’s terrifically smart and cool-headed study of Jamaican dancehall music, accomplishes more in 55 minutes than many documentaries do in twice that time. The film, which opens today at Cinema Village, focuses on issues brought up just over two years ago by the release of the dancehall rapper Buju Banton’s record “Boom Bye Bye,” which advocated shooting homosexuals.
Then the Jamaican dancehall star Shabba Ranks gave an interview in which he supported the song’s hateful language and declared that homosexuals deserved to be crucified. Under pressure, he later said that while homosexuality was wrong, he did not condone physical violence against anyone.
The incidents gave a frightening focus to the cartoonish machismo and accompanying homophobia and misogyny that ripple through the related worlds of dancehall and gangsta rap. The director interviews both Mr. Banton, who appears naively nonchalant about his incendiary record, and Mr. Ranks, who indulges in smug, ponderous Bible thumping. Several American rap stars are heard from. Former Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica reflects on his country’s history. There are thoughtful interviews with several theologians, academicians and civil rights advocates.
In trying to uncover the roots of the sexism and anti-gay sentiment that permeate a significant segment of black popular culture, the English director has woven his material in a way that makes “Boom Bye Bye” the flash point for a wider investigation that broadens as the film goes along. Important clues are found in Jamaica’s fundamentalist Christianity, its history of guns and drug-dealing, and in the changing musical fashions that have seen reggae, which exalted the spirit, give way to dancehall, which celebrates the body.
The film’s most eloquent voice belongs to Cornell West, the brilliant and charismatic author of “Race Matters.” An impassioned humanitarian and scholar, Mr. West connects many cultural strands, devoting special attention to the authoritarian nature of black nationalist movements and lamenting the poisonous nihilism that is spreading among the poor. Ultimately, the film suggests, the vicious intolerance in a significant segment of black popular culture is a legacy of slavery itself. Oppression begets oppression.
Coreroc Says: I think free speach factors into the situation, but not as much as where these LGBT folks may have been when they were 15 and things they may have said or done. I think people should be able live past a mistake and I also think folks judge this situation with a huge lack of evidence to fairly act out against this artist. I hope for many reason this show gets rescheduled and I also hope at least one LGBT person actually shows up to witness the show.
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know much about this artist, which is the reason I personally didn’t call or email the LC to protest.
That being said… I’m not sure how long ago this footage was taken, but he looks quite a bit older than 15:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46PASiOjdP4
Skip ahead to the 2:22 mark in the video for him screaming “There is no end to the war between me and faggots“.
Again… I don’t know enough about this artist to really make an informed decision about his music… but it’s probably not the kind of show I’d encourage any of my LGBT friends to go spend their money on, based on what little I do know about him.
for right or wrong, sometimes you have to take cultural norms and differenes into account.
But a Jamaican musician who wants to tour in the US shouldn’t be expected to take cultural norms and differences into account here?
Doesn’t a statement like that swing both ways? (no pun intended)
Again, he recorded this song when he was 15. He has been fighting the issue for many many years and I guess I can understand some of his frustration, thus some of his comments (not saying everything he’s said is ok, just looking at another side). He’s publicly apologized, he DID sign the paper (he denied it because of the grief he took from other artists, but he DID sign it), he’s done no other song since that even kind of approaches the issue.
Did you not see the link Walker posted? He’s definitely not 15 when he’s singing “There is no end to the war between me and faggots”
And if he denied signing that agreement because of the grief he took from other artists than he’s an even bigger douche than what I already thought.
mmm, bad choice of words surely spawned by the frustration of fighting over a song he wrote way back when, that was reissued without his permission. Again, I’m not condoning his choice of words. And before you start condeming, maybe you should know a little about the artist culture in JA.
I just read on Pollstar that Alrosa Villa is the venue for the upcoming show. So it appears that Buju is coming still.
I understand the right of free speech, but doesn’t that apply to Americans. He isn’t an American. Why should I have to hear a peep from some murder/hate promoting Jamaican?
As far as I’m concerned, he shouldn’t be allowed access to our country.
The concert promoters love of cash is transcending the need to be responsible to the community at large. (BTW…European Skin-Head Bands aren’t allowed over here, neither was Amy Winehouse.)
If you don’t like his music don’t listen to it. Don’t go to his show.
I can think about 100 other things that people should address before something like this.
Yep. October 2, Alrosa Villa. I hope to see some of the folks here who’ve condemned the man without hearing his other songs at the show. Please understand, again, that just about all of his other music is about spirituality and positivity. And again, HE WAS 15. While he probably isn’t really PRO-gay, he’s not advocating the violence and hate that he did WHEN HE WAS 15. To date, his music is some of the most influental in the reggae scene.
Oh, I don’t think the promoters of this show are making anywhere close to big dollars off this or any reggae show here. They’re doing it to promote reggae in Columbus.
And I have to agree with misskitty. Have you all listened to much hip-hop lately? How about some of that good old country music? There’s a lot of other stuff going on that people seem pretty ok with.
GH you are totally avoiding the fact that he was charged in the brutal beatings in Jamaica a few years ago……. thats my biggest beef with the POS. ive read more terrible shit about this guy on google than positive. i dont know why anyone would defend this guy. he obviously still feels this way and participates in violent behavior towards gay people.
If we don’t like the music then don’t listen to it??
In that case, I don’t agree with the KKK so I just won’t go to their rallies.
I also don’t agree with Westboro Baptist Church or Fred Phelps, so I just won’t attend their pickets of fallen soldiers.