Scheduling classes as an instrumental music student at the University of Michigan is a pain. Why? Because I have to take into consideration this ambiguous two hour block of rehearsal time without actually knowing when it is. Every term, I find myself wondering if anyone might take into consideration the fact that if I do not get into Symphony Band next semester, I will have to completely redo my schedule. I know the answer, however: No. We are placed into our respective groups using blind auditions. It does not matter if they know you, or if they heard you play that one piece perfectly in that one master class. If you have a bad audition, you do not get much of a choice in the matter.
This is the tiniest of problems, but it has proven to be slightly more significant than I had initially realized. The reason why they use blind auditions at any organization is obvious, it is to prevent the staff from playing favorites or discriminating against women and people of color. I wonder what the average orchestra would look like if it was not for these blind auditions. Considering just how important this has been in diversifying professional orchestras, a tiny sliver of light is shed on the reason why some people seem to be so against policies like affirmative action, because the concept of a blind audition is essentially the opposite of affirmative action, and it seems to be working just fine. Why would it not be better to live in a world where we literally and figuratively do not see color? Because it is not that simple.
In classical music, the people who make it are the people who are the best at what they do. It is the only field that could be considered completely color blind, but looking at the general demographic of any major orchestra, it is clear that this blind audition format is not enough. There is only one permanent Black member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and this is in a city where about 78% of the population is Black (Census Bureau). This is not to say that they are not trying. According to Mark Stryker, “no major American orchestra has more forcefully championed the full breadth of African-American classical composers than the DSO” (Stryker). In 1990, the DSO launched its African American Orchestra Fellowship. The young Black musicians who are welcomed into the orchestra through this program are given an opportunity that is unlike any other, and it is extremely beneficial. Most of the participants end up getting good jobs upon their departure (Koning). It is a really positive thing, but the circumstances that make it a necessity are unfortunate.
As I studied music in my youth, I was automatically ahead of my Black peers. If not for the generational wealth I received from my parents, I could not have afforded to take private lessons, nor could I have afforded to participate in any number of the summer intensives, honors ensembles, or youth orchestras I had the opportunity to attend. In 2019, the real median household income of Black families was $45,438 compared to the White families’ $76,057 (Census Bureau). This means that White families have nearly twice as much money to spend on, say, a $30,000 bassoon, which is the bottom of the price range for a good professional model. This is where it starts to become clear that by the time Black musicians get around to the process of auditioning for professional ensembles, it is too late for blind auditions to make much of a difference. The goal is currently to make sure racial bias does not prevent musicians of color from winning an orchestral job, but how many are able to make it to the actual audition? It is evident that simply eliminating race from the process has not actually put an end to the issue at hand.
In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “It is obvious that if a man is entered at the starting line of a race three hundred years after another man, the first would have to perform some impossible feat in order to catch up with his fellow runner” (King). Slavery was officially emancepated 158 years ago, but the Emancipation Proclamation simply read “that all persons held as slaves, are, and henseforth shall be free” (Lincoln). In the words of Jim Down, emancipation “was a critical and necessary step in ending slavery,” but, “we can see how enslaved people liberated themselves from the shackles of Southern plantations but then were confronted with a number of questions: How would they survive? Where would they get their next meal? Where were they to live? How would they survive in a country torn apart by war and disease?” This is not something that was really addressed. It is obvious that racial discrimination was not going to stop after the emancipation of slavery. As early as the 18th century, “scientists” started thinking up explanations for why people look different, specifically as a way to excuse the enslavement of Africans by White people. By 1851, it was so bad that Samuel A. Cartwright, a supposed physician, thought up a mental illness that only affected Black people. It was called “dysaesthesia aethiopica,” and it was “a type of lethargy that struck Africans who were not enslaved or overseen by whites” (Curran). This is not something that was just going to go away, especially not by simply ignoring race altogether.
Some of the most controversial policies are the ones that do take race into consideration. Affirmative action, for example, has been one of the prime topics on the table in conversations about racial discrimination. As a concept, it has been around since the 19th century, but it did not become law until President John F. Kennedy made an executive order in 1961 requiring government contractors to observe it (Cornell Law). The idea that affirmative action requires quotas is, for the most part, a myth, unless quotas are something deemed necessary based on the actions of individual contractors. Instead, it requires contractors to formulate goals that will help eliminate any discrimination in their hiring process (University of Oregon). Politicians like Ronald Reagan, however, who oppose affirmative action, use terms like “quotas” and “reverse racism” to push the agenda that it is a policy that insults people of color, and unfairly favors unqualified Black applicants over more qualified applicants of other races. This forces the focus to switch from White contractors’ responsibility to create an environment where people of color are able to work, to personal feelings.
On January 19th, 1986, Reagan was on the radio, arguing that Black people were profiting from his administration despite his open opposition to a number of civil rights laws. He said, “we are committed to a society in which all men and women have equal opportunities to succeed, and so we oppose the use of quotas. We want a color-blind society” (AP). During his time in office, he assisted in swaying the way Americans viewed racism, pushing this rhetoric that race has nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with individuals mistreating other individuals. He succeeded in making the lives of Black Americans much harder, but he did so without nearly as much controversy as we would expect today. He was able to claim that programs such as affirmative action are actually racist, stating that when Martin Luther King Jr. uttered the words, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” he was saying that we should disregard race, and, in the words of Justin Gomer and Christopher Petrella, pick up this “‘colorblind’ approach to the law,” which enabled Reagan to “frame his relentless attacks on civil rights as motivated by a morally righteous and apolitical commitment to equality” (Gomer).
Reagan’s ideology has undoubtedly lived on. In 2018, Donald Trump’s senior campaign advisor, Katrina Pierson, spoke at an event called “Women for Trump,” and said, “Donald Trump doesn’t see color. He doesn’t see race. He doesn’t see gender” (C-Span). Of course, the attendees did not see an issue with this statement. They nodded along with everything the speakers were saying, but the thing is, Katrina Pierson was the only person in that room who was not White. In Trump’s case, the phrase is used as a mask for all of the racist things he has done and said. Despite obvious evidence, from the perspective of the people in that room, if Trump truly does not see color, when the Justice Department sued him in 1973 for turning Black lease applicants down despite having open apartments available on his properties (Graham), for example, who is to say he even realized what he was doing? It is an extremely easy excuse to make.
Even among upper-class White Americans with a liberal political standing, the concept of color blindness is still often understood as an expression of anti-racism whether they realize it or not. A family friend of mine recently brought up the idea of the United States as a “melting pot.” She wondered why we were putting all of this effort into distinguishing different cultures, which from her perspective is divisive, when we could just all come together, regardless of our differences, and essentially “just get along.” On a very surface level, it is easy to understand where she is coming from, but at the same time, this is the easy way out. The phrase “melting pot” is really just a nicer, neater way of describing the United States’ brutal history with assimilation. By now, it is somewhat common knowledge that assimilation is among the most racist concepts. It frames people who have a culture that differs from the canon as “undesirable.” These people are viewed as something that is broken, and that needs to be fixed. If we are to learn from experience, completely disregarding our history is dangerous. Ignoring race will not achieve anything regarding our continuing strives toward equity, and there is a good chance it will allow racism to thrive because we would not be holding ourselves accountable.
Despite my clear support for it, I am not afraid to admit that affirmative action is a band aid covering a wound that badly needs stitches. It is a better band aid, however, than pretending the wound is not there and allowing it to bleed freely. If I am to, one day, be able to perform in an orchestra that is not majority White, and which does not exclusively play music written by White men who have been dead for hundreds of years, White people cannot allow themselves to stand idly by and simply treat people of color with kindness. This is more than just a change in the attitude of individuals, it requires us to look at what we have done wrong in the past, and do something about it.
Works Cited
AP. “REAGAN QUOTES KING SPEECH IN OPPOSING MINORITY QUOTAS.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Jan. 1986, www.nytimes.com/1986/01/19/us/reagan-quotes-king-speech-in-opposing-minority-quotas.html.
Census Bureau, US. “Income and Poverty in the United States: 2019.” The United States Census Bureau, 15 Sept. 2020, www.census.gov/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-270.html.
Census Bureau, US. “Quick Facts: Detroit, MI.” The United States Census Bureau, 1 July 2019, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/detroitcitymichigan,US/PST045219.
Cornell Law. “Affirmative Action.” Legal Information Institute, Legal Information Institute, www.law.cornell.edu/wex/affirmative_action#:~:text=While%20the%20concept%20of%20affirmative,are%20treated%20during%20employment%2C%20without.
C-SPAN. “Women For Trump, Katrina Pierson and Others.” C-SPAN, 2018, www.c-span.org/video/?452538-2%2Fwomen-trump-katrina-pierson.
Curran, Andrew. “The Origin of 'Race' Is a Key Part of the History of Racism.” Time, Time, 10 July 2020, time.com/5865530/history-race-concept/.
Downs, Jim. “An Interview with Professor Jim Downs.” Oxford African American Studies Center, 2012, oxfordaasc.com/page/an-interview-with-professor-jim-downs.
Gomer, Justin. “Perspective | 'Not a Racist Bone in His Body': The Origins of the Default Defense against Racism.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 16 July 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/04/11/not-racist-bone-his-body-origins-default-defense-against-racism/.
Graham, David A. “An Oral History of Trump's Bigotry.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 6 July 2020, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/trump-racism-comments/588067/.
King, Martin Luther. “'I Have A Dream' Speech, In Its Entirety.” NPR, NPR, 18 Jan. 2010, www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety#:~:text=I%20have%20a%20dream%20today.&text=Dr.,-KING%3A%20I%20have&text=KING%3A%20I%20have%20a%20dream%20that%20one%20day%20every%20valley,This%20is%20our%20hope.
King, Martin Luther. Why We Can't Wait. Penguin Books, 2018.
Koning, Michelle. “Fellowship Program.” Detroit Symphony Orchestra, 27 Sept. 2019, www.dso.org/about-the-dso/fellowship-program.
Lincoln, Abraham. “The Emancipation Proclamation.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, 1863, www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation#:~:text=President%20Abraham%20Lincoln%20issued%20the,and%20henceforward%20shall%20be%20free.%22.
Stryker, Mark. “Dispatches from Detroit .” DO THE M@TH, 18 Aug. 2020, ethaniverson.com/dispatches-from-detroit-by-mark-stryker/.
University of Oregon. “Human Resources.” Affirmative Action Myths and Realities, hr.uoregon.edu/employee-labor-relations/affirmative-action/affirmative-action-myths-and-realities.
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