There was an online group formed in the musician community that espoused those ideas McWhorter is calling out. Signing petitions, calling for firing academics, checking who’s insufficiently woke, etc. Plus monthly meetings to maintain rigor and plan further strategy. I kind of felt like, if you got an invite to join, and didn’t, then you were assumed to be racist.

This idea has been proposed: Since non-white composers (well, honestly, any contemporary composers) are listed in concert programs by first and last name, we should no longer list well-known classical composers simply by last name (“Beethoven”) but print out their full names (“Ludwig van Beethoven”) because that supposedly levels the playing field.

I guess it would be easier if black people just went away.

I thought the essay was a great lot of nothing. Unless issues of race can be perfectly logical and expressed as such, we should all just throw our hands up, I guess.

quote:

Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
I guess it would be easier if black people just went away.

The author is a Black man.

quote:

Unless issues of race can be perfectly logical and expressed as such, we should all just throw our hands up, I guess.

I'm curious as to what that bit of sarcasm implies. Does that mean that any difference of viewpoint is automatically invalid, even if expressed by another Black person?

This was a teaser for a longer work. I wouldn't expect him to dot every "i" and explore every angle. This piece struck me as a diagnosis and critique of the modern "movement," not a policy template for the future.

Anti-racism as a religion?
Have seen racism as a religion since childhood.

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
Anti-racism as a religion?
Have seen racism as a religion since childhood.

Right that, too. Most of the ...isms tend that way sooner or later.

Big Al