HULU’S “FYRE FRAUD” DOCUMENTARY SHOULD BE CALLED “WHITE PRIVILEGE…LET ME COUNT THE WAYS”

Last night, my wife and I watched the first of two documentaries coming out this week on the epic fail that was the Fyre Festival AKA that concert in the Bahamas that Ja Rule was promoting to rich, mostly white, millennials who paid tons of money for a complete disaster.

There were several takeaways from the documentary that we found downright jarring but what stood out to us more than anything else was the level of white privilege utilized by the festival creator, Billy McFarland, throughout the entire process.

Billy McFarland and Ja Rule (Yes, that Ja Rule of Murder Inc.) were complete frauds from the very beginning. From the start of McFarland’s credit card company, Magnises, that Ja was the “Brand Ambassador” for, things just weren’t right, and you could tell. The Queens MC had no clue what McFarland’s credit card company even did, all he knew was that, with McFarland by his side, he could get into exclusive NYC parties. He also knew that McFarland had the charm to be the next big thing in the world of tech entrepreneurship that people like Gary Vee is championing. A world that is increasingly moving into hip-hop culture for no other reason than to be cool to their white millennial audience, but that’s another column. This column is about the practical tools that McFarland used to his advantage that could only be used by a white, cisgender, male.

The first being that McFarland was a white male. There is no way a person of color (even Ja Rule) could have pulled off this level of fraud without it going bust weeks before the festival date. The documentary tells most of the story about how McFarland pulled the scam but: How did McFarland really do it? How was it really allowed to go this far? It’s because McFarland is white and his white privilege allowed him to be trusted at every turn of the process.

McFarland got investment checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars with no proof or plan that Fyre Festival was real. He got a $3 million loan days before the festival. He forged documents, set up scam companies, he secured popular social media influencers to promote the festival, he locked-in bands with no down payments, he even worked deals with local workers in the Bahamas. He was granted a level of trust that only comes with being white. My wife and I were watching the documentary repeatedly telling each other, there is no way they would have let president Obama get that much money with no proof, yet they are turning it over millions of dollars to McFarland, a failed businessman with no real track record of success.

That fact that his credit card company failed in stellar fashion and McFarland was able to recover to a point where he created Fyre Festival, and the Fyre app, is an example of white privilege in its own right. Do you think these same people, banks and investment companies would have invested in Ja Rule without McFarland? I think not. And Ja had gold records and platinum hits!

The truth is, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency, in 2018, minority-owned businesses were much less likely to be approved for business loans than white-owned firms. And, even if they do get approved, minority-owned firms are more likely to receive lower amounts and higher interest rates.

Not only was McFarland able to secure funds for the fake festival, but he was also able to secure friends. Friends like the social media firm Jerry Media that has a reputation for dominating the social media marketing game. They worked for pay but they also remained loyal to the concept of the festival well after they became aware that things weren’t adding up financially and physically on the ground. That type blind-faith that Jerry Media gave to McFarland is not afforded to people of color, it’s just not.

So, McFarland used his charm and privilege to secure funds and then he used it to secure labor and loyal friends and then – and most important – he used it to secure fans AKA patrons AKA marks. Hundreds of people bought expensive tickets and got on planes to go to the Bahamas to receive the Fyre festival experience. Going even further, days before the festival, patrons were told that the festival was cardless and cashless and encouraged them to upload their money, up to $1,500, on to Fyre digital Fyre bands in advance of the festival. Again, Ja Rule is no saint in this entire scam but no one is getting on a plane and going to the Bahamas and uploading money on their digital band to see Ja Rule – especially without Ashanti. No one! People spent way too much money for tickets and got on those planes because they trusted the experience was real. It was not.

My final thought, and probably, the most disturbing is to learn that even after all this, McFarland, who is currently serving 6 years in prison for wired fraud associated with all of his scams, still played us in the Hulu doc. He got paid $250,000 according to sources close to the film and reported on The Ringer to be in the Hulu film. That’s crazy. When was the last time you heard of a person of color getting that type of deal?

The Netflix doc drops this Friday. I’m not sure what new information I will learn but I’m sure that white privilege will still be a reoccurring theme that my wife and I discuss throughout the film. That, and the fact that Ja Rule should probably be beside McFarland in jail. I don’t see how he got out of it. It’s Murdaaaaaaaaa.

“never trust anyone who says they do not see color.
this means, to them, you are invisible.” Nayyirah Waheed