Black People for punk gigs.

Lately we have discussed the idea of making ads for people who are black with couple of colleague of my community. My idea was to make them feel welcome and to encourage them to come to the punk rock gigs. That has to do with my assumption that flyers have and influence on people’s notions of subcultures. Now, a friend of mine said that it is stupid to make such "special" things because for him it is actually an epitomy of racism. I wrote an e-mail to James Spooner, the director of Afropunk, be cause I wanted to interweave his ideas.

"Well first of all it is good that you are having these discussions. It is the only way to break down racism.
The fact that we have put on shows with hundreds of black people, most not punks but blacks who are curios, proves alot. On top of that , the black people in Europe are more open minded that us here in the states. Our history of slavery being so recent effects the mentality here.

I dont htink you should make special flyers for black poeple. We dont need it explained to us. What you do need to do is simply inivte them. You want any demographic at your shows invite them. Afropunk is sucessful because we simply invited blacks to come. We invite everyone but:We go out of our way to mark to black people. The way you would if you saw a kid with a patch on his bag I will run across the street to give a flyer to a kid who looks like he or she may be open to new things. How do you spot em?Just open your eyes. It becomes clear.

James"