"Play that funky music white boy"

"Yeah, they was dancin' and singin' and movin' to the groovin'
And just when it hit me somebody turned around and shouted
Play that funky music white boy
Play that funky music right
Play that funky music white boy
Lay down the boogie and play that funky music till you die"

I am not going to front; some of the most soulful music I have ever heard came from the mouths of white artists. Please don't tell me that you can't close your eyes and picture folks like Tina Marie, Simply Red, Michael McDonald, or Phoebe Snow being black. Because if you did say that you would be lying.

Which is why I am not feeling what the folks at Hampshire College did to the boys in a little known band called Shokazoba. OK, the name sucks, but if the fellows can jam why in the name of Phil Collins are they being discriminated against?

 "There's still big noise at little Hampshire College after the school pulled the plug on a band's appearance at a Halloween event for being, as one band member put it, "too white." Shokazoba keyboard player James Moses said a group of 30 or so Hampshire students complained to the party's organizers about the Afrobeat band's predominantly white makeup, and a college spokeswoman acknowledged the critics were concerned about "cultural appropriation and the need to respect marginalized cultures." As online debate intensified and grew ugly, the school canceled the gig and paid off the band.."

Not cool. "Cultural appropriation" and "respecting marginalized cultures" has no place when it comes to the boogie. Jamming is universal. If you are a white boy and can get your funk on by all means go at it. Just don't water down the funk or suck at playing it.

Now, to be honest, I have never listened to Shokazoba , but apparently neither did the students at Hampshire College. They should have given them a chance. Judging their level of funkiness based simply on their racial makeup is just wrong. Music is universal.

I remember, as a kid, hearing Tyrone Downie telling my cousin how the Wailers would play sold out shows in Europe and that the only people who were supporting them were white folks. He said that they would "cum a foreign" (play in the United States) and sadly they could count the black folks in the audience on one hand. The reality is that if it wasn't for my friends on the white side showing love for reggae music; Bob Marley probably would not hold the iconic status he now enjoys in the world of popular culture.  

"..Moses said the organizing students blamed the band for increasing tensions. "It was just absolutely a disgusting experience," he said. "It felt like we were demonized."

Let's book these boys at the Apollo as a gesture of kindness from black folks.

James, if you and the boys do happen to get the gig, you just better not suck. [Source]