In Europe an accusation is raging: “cultural appropriation”. Anyone in the public eye must be careful that this accusation is not leveled against him or her. And it’s hard to do unless you want to be completely opportunistic. Because a broad definition of “cultural appropriation” also includes those expressive elements that one is willingly and respectfully adopted as one’s own, which have long since become part of one’s personality, regardless of the foreign culture of origin. Think, for example, of a Rasta hairstyle with dreadlocks. This too can cause serious problems in the “culture of cancellation” paradigm. Especially artists can sing a song about it.
The “case” of the band “Lauwarm”
Or not. Not if he is prevented from doing so. Like the Swiss band “Lauwarm”, whose concert in July 2022 had to be canceled because visitors were bothered by the band members’ dreadlocks hairstyles. The concert organizer was not fair and did not defend the performance. In this case, the result of the “Clear Culture” is that the popularity of the Bernese band, which was previously known more regionally, has increased dramatically. “Suddenly lukewarmly much in demand”, headlined the “Schweizer Illustrierte” a few weeks ago. In fact, the criticisms of the cancellation of the concert on social media have been overturned. This made “Lauwarm” interesting for the “classic” media – not only the Swiss periodicals reported on the “case”, but also from the Dutch “Telegraaf” or the British “Times”. Typical case of “backfire”.
The “case” of singer Ronja Maltzhn
The non-invitation of Münster singer Ronja Maltzahn by the local group “Fridays for Future” in Hanover in March 2022 also received good media coverage. Climate activists accused the light-skinned artist of wearing a dreadlock hairstyle. An appearance at one of the famous Friday demos in Hanover would only have been possible if she had cut her dreadlocks early. However, Ronja Maltzah didn’t want that. She regrets the cancellation and cannot understand the justification of “Fridays for Future” that the demo is not only about the climate, but also an “anti-colonial and anti-racist narrative” in relation to her persona. For her, every appearance of her is always about “a sign of peace and against discrimination”, she writes on her Instagram channel. And: “It is a pity that we are excluded for external characteristics”.
The “case” of the singer Mario Parizek
A third Rasta “case” this summer: in August, the Austrian musician Mario Parizek was unable to start his concert at the cultural bar “Das Gleis” in Zurich. The reason: The organizer received calls and emails in advance from worried people who mocked Parizek’s dreadlocks. Parizeks didn’t want to get into an argument about her hairstyle with the bar management – whatever might be negotiated here – and the concert was canceled. After all, the artist received financial compensation from the bar. Mario Parizek found clear words for “Cancel culture”. He spoke of a “more or less fascist attitude” on the part of the initiators.
Three artists, one problem: dreadlocks. You don’t have to understand it. And you don’t have to take the Nazi club right away. But the canceled concerts and unintentionally unloading show strikingly just how totalitarian the “culture of cancellation” is.
The contribution comes from our freelance author Josef Bordat. It is part of our “Reports from the parallel world” series. There, authors from other disciplines take a look at jurisprudence in theory and practice. Unlike our other specialist articles, the articles therefore do not look at legal events and cases from a legal perspective, but from a completely different perspective. Hence, which should be left to the reader’s judgment. We think it will always be interesting.
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