Hello, and welcome to ATPs, Really Dumb Things They Said. I’m Barry Nussbaum.

A new pride event is taking place in Seattle, specifically for BIPOC people; black, indigenous, and people of color. The promotional material for the event, called “Black Pride,” announced that while the event would be free for people of color.

White people will be charged a $10 – $50 reparations fee, quote, “All are free to attend. However, this is a black and brown, queer-centered, prioritized valued event. White allies and their accomplices are welcome to attend but will be charged a reparations fee that will be used to keep this event free of cost for the black and brown, trans and queer community.”

So, Capitol Hill Pride, which is hosting it, took issue with the Black Pride fee structure and complained to the City of Seattle’s Human Rights Commission. That complaint was dismissed. They were sent a letter directed from the City of Seattle calling out the reparation’s payments for white people and not for people of color as reverse racism.

Here’s the letter: It has come to our attention that an event called, “Taking Black Pride,” at the Jimi Hendrix Public Park is charging a whites-only admission as reparations. We consider this reverse discrimination in its worst form, and we feel we are being attacked for not supporting due to disparaging and hostile emails,” the letter states.

The letter asks the commission to review the event for possible violations of city, county, and state-federal discrimination laws. The letter further called attention to a likely elections’ violation by the event organizers. Yet, the Seattle Human Rights Commission replied they would not be taking up the complaint because it doesn’t violate anyone’s human rights.

From my perspective, and I think most intelligent people would agree discrimination based on color is racist. In fact, that is the definition of racism, and it’s really dumb.