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hey classical music organizations, i want to have a little chat
get something you can take notes with, ok?
get something you can take notes with, ok?
you might, in the next week or so, find yourself needing to send out a newsletter about your 2021 plans. you know, "looking forward to the year ahead" type stuff. being a Culturally Aware Organization, you'll probably feel the need to mention the events of this past Wednesday
when you do, you might be tempted to reach for the language of unity and healing. "our social fabric is in tatters; we're all feeling isolated from the pandemic and more divided than ever — music can help us come together, find common ground, and start to heal these deep divides"
you know, that soaring, inspiring rhetoric that classical music likes to traffic in about itself. i'm not going to go out and quote specific examples, but i imagine you're familiar with the kind of language i mean
i want to encourage you not to do this
i want to encourage you not to do this
i want to encourage you not to do this because, as someone who has already started receiving e-mails like this, every single one of them reads like you are saying you want to find common ground with people wearing shirts saying "Camp Auschwitz" and "6,000,000 was not enough",...
...which is to say with people who want to murder me, to hang me in the town square for being Jewish, for being trans, for being mentally ill, for being queer, for being disabled, for being in an interracial relationship — me and so many others i love and am in community with
(and if this is what *i* am feeling, i can only imagine what others who do not have the protections i have are feeling, but theirs are not my stories to tell)
i want to believe that when you say that you want to find common ground to end the division in our society, you mean something other than finding ways to live alongside white supremacists, but usually i can find nothing in your words or actions as an organization to support this
usually i can't find anything that establishes that you understand and act like white supremacists can and must have no place in our body politic. in fact usually it's quite the reverse. usually it seems like you're basically fine with them as long as they're subtle/tasteful/rich
but you cannot have both. the overlap — the "common ground" — between "societies i want" and "societies white supremacists want" is a void, a nullity, it does not exist. and i fundamentally do not trust anyone for whom that is not the case
so what if, instead, you reached for some other words. what if, instead, you used language about how art can inspire us to hold true to our values, to be courageous even in the face of daunting odds, can lead us to turn inwards and reflect on how we can and must be better
just some suggestions! there are a lot of other avenues to take. but please, i am so tired of seeing you say you want to find common cause with people who want to murder me, and so tired of not knowing if you even realize that that's what you're saying
do fucking better
do fucking better
(this thread was inspired by specific organizations but i'm not going to name them here because it's an absolutely endemic rhetorical issue and i don't want to focus attention on one or two places when almost every organization is terrible at this and needs to change)
