DGS49
Diamond Member
Classical Music’s Suicide Pact (Part 1)
Editor’s note: this story is part of City Journal’s Summer 2021 print issue and is being published online in two installments. Read Part 2 here. Classical music is under racial attack. Orchestras and opera companies are said to discriminate against black musicians and composers. The canonical...
www.city-journal.org
The linked article (sorry it's so long) is Part I of an essay by Heather McDonald about the self-destructive movement in classical music and opera venues to fight racism - where it manifestly does not exist. She details initiatives by various symphony orchestras and opera companies to fight racism by, in effect, imposing impossible quotas, not only in the artists themselves, but also for the composers whose works are being performed.
But these institutions have had no trace of racism for many decades, always giving breaks and favors to POC's, while at the same time insisting on meritocratic selection of the artists themselves and the works being performed. If successful, these movements will deprive deserving "white" artists and composers of their earned opportunities, and substitute sub-standard POC's, just for the sake of "diversity" (or whatever bullshit term is desired).
And the hope is that these institutions, which DEPEND on the gifts of rich people to stay afloat, will not go down the drain to financial ruin (not a great distance these days) because of the dumbing-down of their products.
But again, "we" are fighting racism where none exists.
On a much larger scale, on what college campus has institutional racism existed in the past 40 years? None. They kowtow to every POC (except Asians), and have done so for years and years. In fact, I have never even heard of a credible case where a Black academic was denied a position or promotion or tenure BECAUSE OF THEIR RACE. Most of such complaints are basically that they felt entitled to some special consideration and didn't get it.
But if you look at the diversity infrastructure of most colleges and universities - with directors and other administrators whose sole job is to stamp out racism, you would think that they had been previously run by the KKK. Bullshit.
Same for government institutions. They all have highly paid administrators and managers whose only job is to promote the interests of Black people, as though they had been victimized mercilessly in the past. But Government has for generations been one place where a POC could go and expect to be treated equally with everyone else.
Why is racism fought most vigorously where it does not exist?