Dutch singer Sophie Straat's 'white men to the back' call not discrimination, say Dutch and Belgian watchdogs

The calls from the stage

Sophie Straat, a 31-year-old Dutch singer, first made the request at the Best Kept Secret festival in the Netherlands last month. Before the mosh pit for her final song, she asked "all white men" to step back so that women, queer people, and people of colour could take the front. On Monday, July 20, she repeated the call at the Boomtown stage during the Gentse Feesten in Ghent, Belgium, just before performing "De witte duif" (The White Dove). "There is never time for nuance. We are already too late for nuance," she told the crowd, then asked white men to move to the back. After the song, she urged the audience to put themselves in others' shoes and concluded with applause. Her T-shirt read "Pop stars against...".

Complaints flood in

The Dutch discrimination reporting centre Discriminatie.nl received "many hundreds" of complaints about the Best Kept Secret incident, director Jerrol Marten confirmed. The Belgian equal opportunities centre Unia logged around 200 reports following the Ghent performance. Spokesperson Carole Poncin said the volume triggered a "mass report" procedure, which kicks in at more than ten reports. The Public Prosecution Service in West-Brabant also confirmed receiving multiple formal complaints, though a spokesperson declined to say whether all complainants had attended the concert.

The rulings: no discrimination

Both watchdogs concluded the statement did not amount to discrimination. Discriminatie.nl wrote to complainants that it saw "not enough reason to think that there was discrimination on the basis of skin colour or gender." The centre noted that the call concerned only one short, one-time mosh pit and that visitors were not refused entry to the concert. It pointed to European Court of Human Rights case law granting artists wider latitude for freedom of expression, even when provocative, shocking, or offensive. Unia similarly found no evidence that white men were actually excluded. "Although the statement can be experienced as polarising or hurtful, it must be seen in this context as a symbolic and artistic expression," a Unia spokesperson said. The centre added that only a genuine call to discrimination, exclusion, or hatred could limit that protection.

What her intention was, people can feel discriminated against by this. We understand that, but at this moment we see insufficient reason to think there was discrimination on the basis of skin colour or gender.

Although the statement can be experienced as polarising or hurtful, it must be seen in this context as a symbolic and artistic expression.

Backlash and artist's response

After the Best Kept Secret show, Straat said she received a flood of sexist, anti-Semitic hate messages and death threats. In an Instagram essay, she described "hate messages and (death) threats, each more explicit and creative than the last," and said they embodied a society built on "racism, sexism, classism and fascism." At the Ghent concert, she clarified her intent, asking the crowd to trust their own experience and humanity. "From now on, only love," she said, drawing applause.

Trust your own experience. If you don't have it, trust your humanity. Put yourself in others' shoes. From now on, only love.

A pattern of activism

Straat's stage statements fit a broader activist profile. She founded Protestfest, an annual festival combining music, art, and activism in Amsterdam. Her songs tackle patriarchy, racism, Gaza, and the right to protest. At a previous festival, she halted her performance when security removed Palestinian flags from the audience. Boomtown organizer Tomas Raeymaekers said the festival had booked her before the controversy erupted in the Netherlands. "What she says on stage belongs to the artistic freedom of musicians. We primarily heard a positive rather than a negative message," he said.

We had already booked Sophie Straat before the fuss in the Netherlands arose. What she says on stage belongs to the artistic freedom of musicians. We primarily heard a positive rather than a negative message.