After the owner of a popular Houston music venue, Fitzgerald’s, was accused of sending racist emails to veteran producer TrakkSounds, the whole thing blew open and countless artists (including comedian Hannibal Buress) have pledged to boycott the place. The woman behind the emails, 70-year-old Sarah Fitzgerald, ignited the firestorm after responding to a booking inquiry by TrakkSounds, a request that she was adamantly against.
The boycotting for @FitzgeraldsLive starts now. This type of response is a disgrace. I will never step foot inside of this place again pic.twitter.com/59Yi4ju0wY
— TrakkSounds (@Trakksounds) February 7, 2017
“I’m gonna pass on this,” Fitzgerald wrote. “Not a big fan of the ‘nigger, bitch, whore, pussy, gonnafuckingshootyou’ music or the fans that wear their pants under their ass with 18 inches of underwear showing, drink and smoke pot in the parking lot then scream ‘you racist bitch’ when I ask that they take their lit joint outside. 300 fans that buy little, tip little and create big disharmony— no thanks.”
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TrakkSounds replied with an amazing amount of restraint and wrote, “Wow…sounds like quite the stereotype but if that’s how you feel then all power to you. A simple no would have worked as well but sounds like you have some aggression build up about something else. Have a good week and god bless you.”
Yeesh. Just worked at this spot on Friday. Never again though. https://t.co/qhAheq1PR8
— Hannibal Buress (@hannibalburess) February 7, 2017
hey @FitzgeraldsLive you forgot to call the black kids "thugs" smh it's 2017 get with the racist program #StepYourGameUphttps://t.co/cgO28DSYcJ
— Fat Tony (@fattonyrap) February 7, 2017
While Buress and a handful of others took to Twitter to declare their solidarity with TrakkSounds, Fitzgerald’s was clearly unmoved nor threatened by the uprising.
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“Boycott away,” they posted. “We do not host misogynistic music that worships rape culture and harbors hatred.”
She also replied to TrakkSounds again in a separate email, writing, “I get insulted when men submit music to me that refers to women as bitches and hoes, just like you would get insulted if a white man sent you music calling black men racial slurs. Your music plays into all stereotypes…gangsters, drugs, women hating, racial slurs, etc,” according to KTRK.
@Trakksounds – boycott away. We do not host misogynistic music that worships rape culture and harbors hatred.
— FitzgeraldsLive (@FitzgeraldsLive) February 7, 2017
@Trakksounds We quoted your song lyrics back to you, said we would pass on the show. Now we're racist for your lyrical content?
— FitzgeraldsLive (@FitzgeraldsLive) February 7, 2017
In fact, Fitzgerald and staff have maintained their original stance and she says she was just repeating words she heard in the lyrics, according to Chron.
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“It flew in my face,” Fitzgerald said. “I said, ‘I don’t want to book this.’ I put in quotes all the words. I used the n-word because that was used frequently in the song. I don’t want to book that kind of music. I was saying it because I find it sexist and racist. That’s just my opinion. It came across as I was making a general, sweeping statement about their music, which is kind of interesting. Are they racist because they used the racial slur 20 times?
“The feminist in me just came out,” she continued. “It’s not right to say anything bad about black men, but you can say bad things about women? I’m tired of being called ‘bitch’ and ‘ho.’ Why is every woman in their song called that?”
Like many others, TrakkSounds, who has produced and DJ’ed for artists such as Bun B, 2 Chainz, A$AP Rocky, Nipsey Hussle, and Jhené Aiko, has vowed never to perform at Fitzgerald’s and is urging others to follow suit.
