As of: 03/24/2022 4:58 p.m
“Fridays for Future” Hanover canceled Ronja Maltzahn’s appearance at the climate protest on Friday – because she has dreadlocks. The Diocese of Hildesheim criticizes this decision.
According to the bishop’s press office, the fact that the musician, as a white person, wears dreadlocks is no reason not to let her perform. “The assessment of the singer based solely on her hair is exaggerated and intolerant.” The criticism relates solely to the behavior of the Hanover local group of “Fridays for Future” (“FFF”) towards Maltzahn. The Diocese of Hildesheim is committed to climate protection, as is “FFF”. The Catholic diocese had called on people to take part in the global climate strike.
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“Nice phone call” with the climate activists
The artist from Bad Pyrmont reported the concert cancellation on her Instagram account on Wednesday. As a result, there were many comments under the entry, and many press people called, said Maltzahn. She also said that she had a nice phone call with the “FFF” activists, “in which they apologized for the insensitive tone” in the written refusal. “At this point I would like to make it very clear that I do not want to start a conflict.” In her video message, the singer emphasized that she shares the values of “Fridays for Future”. She doesn’t want the organization to be badmouthed and become the victim of a shitstorm. “I want to invite you all to start a conversation in a respectful way,” she said.
Is the rejection discriminatory?
The climate activists justified the rejection by saying that “particularly in this global strike they are relying on an anti-colonial and anti-racist narrative”. The website of “FFF” Hanover also states that white people should not wear dreadlocks “because they have appropriated a part of another culture without experiencing the systematic oppression behind it”. The activists add the following to the reasoning, which can also be read in the singer’s Instagram post: “We also get as white Compliments people for the same haircut that black people are racially abused for. That’s why black have resistance symbols […] Don’t look for white heads.” This decision was widely criticized on Maltzahn’s Instagram page, some commentators saw racist patterns and criticized the justification as discriminatory.
Ronja Maltzahn regrets the cancellation
Maltzahn then wrote on her Instagram channel that she was looking forward to “being able to set a sign for peace and against discrimination with our music”. It is a pity to be excluded because of external characteristics. She told the German Press Agency (dpa) that she was very much in favor of looking at where there was discrimination everywhere in our society. But it is also important not to ignore the context. According to the singer, her inspiration for wearing dreadlocks comes from alternative circles. Maltzahn won the Udo Lindenberg Foundation’s Panic Prize for young artists last year. In July she will perform with Lindenberg at the Hermann Hesse Festival.
“FFF” apologize – but remain in the case of cancellation
In the course of the written rejection, “FFF” offered the musician to appear in the climate strike on Friday – if she cuts her hair by then. Then “we would of course welcome you to the demo and let you play,” the letter said. The activists have now apologized for this. This suggestion was an invasion of the artist’s privacy, which should not have happened like this, “Fridays for Future” Hannover announced on its website. “Particularly given that women in this sexist society are often reprimanded for their looks and are not free to dress and display themselves as they please, the message was worded across borders.” At the same time, however, they stuck to their rejection of Maltzahn. Dreadlocks were brought to the US through the enslavement of black people, where they later became a symbol of resistance in civil rights movements of black people. “So if a white person wears dreadlocks, then it’s cultural appropriation because as white people, because of our privilege, we don’t have to deal with the history or the collective trauma of oppression,” the group wrote in the cancellation statement.
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