Racial mix at Mac gigs

[bobwelchera]

Originally Posted by Mr Scarrott

Apologies if this has been brought up sometime before but I was at the second night at London and couldn't help noticing just how Caucasian the audience was. For a city as ethnically diverse as London it was extraordinary just how overwhelmingly white the audience was. I wasn't disturbed by it, just interested.

Does anyone, particulary any Black British or African American Ledgies have any thoughts/ experience regarding this and why this might be?

I'll be posting more thoughts about the gig itself when I've been to my second night later in June.

I'm a 26-year-old African American fan, and when I went to the second show in Philadelphia, I was surprised (although pleased) with the few people of color I did spot. I do not recall how many fans of color I saw at the Charlotte show in '09.

I believe that even to this day, the music industry steers certain groups of people to particular types of music. And when it comes to looking back at bands that had major influences on music history, our society still steers people to look at the bands and artists who look more like them. Now, this isn't a bad thing, necessarily. Motown influenced music forever and should continue to be reviewed and studied by everyone. But the fact that African Americans created the blues and jazz, which included elements of what became rock and roll (also played by mid-century African American musicians,) should be reviewed and studied and embraced just as much. Just on blues alone, I would think there would be more fans of color of Fleetwood Mac's early years.

But we also have to consider affordability of tickets, and perhaps there are even more African American fans that did not have the time or money to spare for a concert.

And I really like Dreamz19's story. :-)

[bobwelchera]

Originally Posted by Jondalar

It's a passive aggressive observation. It's about keeping racism in the forefront in people's mind, so it's easier to race bait about varies issues in the future.

Wow. Sounds like someone's uncomfortable talking about diversity.

[SpyNote]

I'm a racial minority, and I used to go to a lot of Fleetwood Mac concerts in the past. I never experienced anything untoward, but I never felt totally comfortable at concerts either. Unfortunately, if you're a minority, you're always going to feel like an outsider no matter how hard you try to fit in. In general, I think most people believe in diversity intellectually (i.e. diversity is good), but we self-segregate out of our comfort issues.

[Wdm6789]

That's how you know you're at a good concert, when the audience is all old white people, they know the best music.