I'm reminded of the recent kerfluffle over the Down Under minstrel show, how strongly Harry Connick Jr. reacted to it on the scene and how baffled everyone else was at the time. I can see how Connick, as a New Orleans musician and son of a LA Supreme Court Justice, would have a very visceral reaction to a 21st Century minstrel show (and I believe the American controversy over that is more than just a couple generations old. ) I can also see how people overseas would be completely at a loss to understand it (though, in all fairness, it shouldn't be as hard to grasp in Australia. ) The mere fact there's a version of the commercial with both a black and white radio host gives the lie to the idea of "black" music, but I can see how Europe wouldn't be as sensitive (or hypersensitive) to the concept as America because the legacy is very different.

I'd say it's "quasi-racist" because musical tastes and/or talent are not racially defined, though obviously cultural predispositions exist. It's all well to say Mozart was the first rock star, but while he might have picked up rock had he been exposed to it, he never was and thus never composed any.