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.
“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.”
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.”
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
How is this racist? It was an accurate description of the content of an avarage Hip Hop Song. SMFH
She is making a general sweeping of an entire genre rather than just saying “no”. She went to the extreme and didn’t have to drop the n word in her email. It’s not racist completely but it is discrimination to the fullest. Saying all hip hop is misogynistic is making an inaccurate discription, instead what should be stated is some parts of hip hop are misogynistic. And if the owner of the club doesn’t want that then she needs to boycott rock n roll and EDM as those genres of music sexualize woman as well.
She was being honest, I see no problem here.
Honesty is respected. Ignorance within honesty is not.
Ya it’s not ignorant though, what she said is exactly what it would be. Hate to break it but “racist” jokes are funny bc there is usually a lot of truth in them.
If you think what she was saying was entirely true, you would be wrong. There maybe truth to the whole being called a “bitch” when she tells them to take their blunt outside, I can literally see that happening. But the talk about 300 people who buy little and tip little, that’s complete bullshit. If you ever been to a club that plays Hip Hop in America, just tell me who buys more bottles than them? If the club is a poppin spot, there is no Hip Hop night where the bar doesn’t make astronomical amounts of money. It really eerks me when people act like Hip Hop audiences don’t spend money because the factz show the exact opposite. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, bar/club owners who try to tell promoters that they don’t need to stock that much Hennessey or Remy because nobody can drink that much in one night and then between 1 or 2, the bar is running out of liquor. All because they underestimated the depth of the pockets of the Hip Hop/Urban audience and the ability for them to drink pass the average person’s liquor tolerance limit. So I can’t condone this woman’s perspective, no matter how honest. Racist thoughts are often honest most of the time, that doesn’t justify them or make them any more right.
Did she enjoy the degrading music of Whitesnake or Motley Crue or the videos of them dancing on cars? Or is it just when blacks do it?
“How is this racist?”
White people are clowns. Love rap think eminem the most misogynist rapper of all time is the greatest thing ever but as soon as rap is attacked they want to separate themselves from the culture and talk down on it like they don’t love it more than blacks do.
AND DOESN’T ROCK MUSIC CONSTANTLY TALK ABOUT SEX, DRUGS, GOT WHITE KIDS SHOOTING UP SCHOOLS WHEN THEY PROM DATE DON’T WANT EM, DEVIL WORSHIP, AND A BUNCH OF OTHER WILD AS SHIT!?!? Please kudos to TrakkSounds for exposing these clowns FOH
who told you thats HER feelings..i mean you gonna cry about white ppl generalizing you with a generalizing statement? lose-lose arguement
i do not see racism here just complete transparency. This owner hates rap. It is what it is
she is raciest if she doesn’t book any black musicians. Has she every had a black musician play there? If she never books other black musicians from other genres like, jazz, or say a gary clark jr, etc then she is most likely racist to blacks. People need to provide proof of white, hispanics…. musicians that have the same types of songs that she spoke about and booked at her venue. Need more facts and history. At surface she sounds like a racist.
matter fact…i just looked….black bands have played there in past and are scheduled to play their in the future….
so instead of writing a 5 paragraph essay on assumptions you have.. why haven’t you just done the research before hand on google before ranting about possible racism lol not to mention if you even bothered to read the article you’d see hannible buress tweet
It wasn’t a ‘black’ thing, she repeated his offensive lyrics & KNEW this will draw broke troublemakers, who don’t spend in their business, & quick to do some dunmb sh*t & engage security, bad vibes, bad press & generally NEGATIVE not POSITIVE experience! They have black performers all the time, she would of had same reaction to an ignorant white, latino or asian artist with that BS ‘music’ & negative lyrics _ WHO needs trouble?! They’re just trying to run their business!
Can’t hardly blame her for not wanting the place filled with ignorant broke trash thugs.
Yet,your racist bitch ass is on this web site that promotes “ignorant broke trash thugs.”your idiotic word’s
This shit is boring. Worried about Fitzgeralds and the whole game racist as fuck. Call me when these cats aren’t getting dicked by record execs, PRO’s, and streaming services out of their product. Yeah she’s racist as fuck. Yes she hates Hip Hop. Yes she thinks she’s right. Who gives a fuck? All assholes think they’re right.
I get “stereotyping” more then racism from her comments. She assumes people who listen to hip hop are the same. As trakksounds states, she has some pent up anger which she even mentions “being called a b*tch in her parking lot”. Stereotyping is one step below racist
I’ve met the woman lol. Embarrassing venue
I love to see all the comments from paid racist trump /breitbart trolls ! Welcome to the end of the America everyone !
it’s hilarious when regular people on the front lines of society speak the truth. hip hop shows are the worst, they are the highest risk for violence, robbery, and smoking indoors. this dude has probably had experience with these shows and trakksounds is acting all shocked that maybe this is something black audiences are notorious for.
Nothing racist there. Just another grown man acting like a bitch
Some people do not want to be surrounded by mumbling drug addicted ignorant little felon dipshits.