Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has made a lot of news lately as the $47 has laid waste to many governmental employee’s career on his angry autocratic tyrant temper tantrum. I’m not sure what people of color, women, and the LGBTQ community have done to the Christian Nationalists and their messiah, but I’m sure it has to do with their insecurities more than it has to do with law and order. Why can’t they let people exist as is? Autocrats…

About a decade ago I was enrolled in PhD classes at the University of Iowa. In my advanced conducting seminar class we were assigned a research project and I decided to take on social justice in the music classroom. DEI became a portion of my presentation as did the differences between successful music programs from socioeconomically challenged schools and affluent schools. The amount of research on social justice in music at that time was pretty small. Most of the research were Master’s Theses and Doctoral Dissertations. There were seven of us in the seminar. Our breakdown was 100% male and 14.3% African-American and 85.7% White. Our sole diverse voice was my greatest cheerleader in the project. My friend “B” said, “You get it.” I was honored to receive such a compliment.

Here are some reasons why we need DEI in the United States of America, and no it doesn’t have anything to do qualifications. It has to do with the humanity of the work in governance and business and the instruction within education. I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but African-American men and women learn best and relate best with other African-American men and women. A child who identifies as LGBTQ will learn better from one in their community, closely followed by an ally. The same is true for the Latino/Hispanic population, Asian population, etc. When you the student or the citizen seeking service can identify clearly with the teacher or employee providing the service one’s self-efficacy and trust can develop far greater than it can with a different race. I can attest to this as I am a white man working in a school where my race is the minority. I know some of my students see me as the face of their enemy. That is not their fault. It is a naturally learned bias caused by generations of systematic racism caused by the people I happen to look like. I care about this. I want it changed. In order to overcome this bias and systematic racism we need DEI programs to represent the population as a whole.

I will stick with what I know, and explore the gap in DEI within music education. Keep in mind my research is ten years old, and I have not reviewed any new material since then. A Survey of minority student participation in music programs of the Minority Student Achievement Network by Patricia Wheelhouse in 2009 determined there were some interesting patterns of participation in music. African-American students were represented the best in choral ensembles. Asian students were represented the best in orchestral ensembles. Concert Band was primarily a white person’s enterprise. What was even more glaring in the research was the overwhelmingly white male faculty delivering instruction to the numerous and diverse New York schools examined.

I know there are some factors of why some Asian cultures prefer to avoid concert band. Most of it has to do with the volume and timbre of the band. Japan is not one of those cultures. The Concert Band culture in Japan is incredibly strong. There are some amazing professional and school bands in Japan. Why are African-Americans attracted to vocal music? I’m not an ethnomusicologist, but vocal music is an important part of the culture predating the Emancipation Proclamation. The Blues evolves directly out of the hymn tunes, field calls, and code songs of the enslavement period. This is followed by Jazz, R&B, Soul, Funk, and then Rap/Hip Hop. However there is a strong band culture with Historical Black Colleges! Why isn’t it as prevalent in New York? Could it be a socioeconomic issue?

Yes there are socioeconomic issues at play. I’ve seen it directly as a music educator with all of my band programs, and there are some studies about it. Dad Has a Horn in the Attic: Relationships between Instrument Source, Parental Involvement, Socioeconomic Status and Attrition among Beginning Band Students by Jon Robert Moyer(2010) examines how income and age of instrument affects the self efficacy of a child’s music instruction. Successful High School Band Programs in Low Socioeconomic Schools and High Socioeconomic Schools by Ann Deisler (2011) looks at the factors of success. It turns out that there are few things in common for success in band between Low and High SES schools. Here they are: high standards, culturally relevant and high quality music, and a teacher that cares.

Here is where my opinion is an extension of this research. We need DEI badly in this country. Music education is diversifying as I write this. It is not diversifying fast enough. (Could expand this beyond education, but less is more.) There have only been two women band directors in the Southwest Athletic Conference. The second was appointed in 2022 and she is the dean of Grambling State’s music program too. I do not remember which North Carolina University hired their first African-American Athletic Band Director and this has been in the last few years. There are more women being hired for prestigious music positions than ever before. More women and composers of color are getting their music performed by various ensembles. Classical composer, Florence Price won here first grammy award 70 years after her death, shortly after numerous compositions unknown to the world were found in her old Chicago home earlier this century. What? Who? Florence Price? She’s the first African American Woman to have a symphony played by a major orchestra!!! Chicago played Florence Price’s music!! Then she died in 1953, forgotten, but not anymore!!!!!!! But…..

Where is the DEI in our schools? We need more teachers that represent the diversity of school children. Our children need to see leaders and teachers that look like them. If that puts me out of a job, then so be it. I want every school and university to put their DEI in place out of spite to every governor or sad little president. If they feel threatened by a professional of diverse standing then let’s celebrate their anxiety. Old white guys like me had our millennia in the sun. It is time to celebrate everyone else and lift them up on our shoulders and support them. What a brave new world it could be!!

This reminds me of my dear Governor Kim Reynolds of the great state of Iowa. She is a DEI elected candidate, but that’s okay she is a Republican. Don’t let her get by with her double standard as she ordered all universities in the state to stop employing DEI practices. Finally, I will remind everyone that former Vice President Kamala Harris was immensely more qualified than $47 for the presidency. $47’s qualifications are as follows: White, Rich, Man… so over it. This is another reason why we still need DEI. We need to stop employing biased white nationalists for everything. It is too bad the rest of the world sees this error, but the MAGAs can’t.

Moral of this blog. DEI is good. Don’t let anyone BS you into saying otherwise. White Nationalism is bad regardless of its gender. I think most of these dissertations are free downloads if you are interested. Thanks for reading this musicians take on DEI. Now I’m going to listen to some Bernstein conducted by Marin Alsop, and I will follow that up with JoAnn Falleta. I can’t wait to see some recordings with Rei Hotada conducting. I’m a little biased, but I enjoy all of their work as musicians/conductors.

Marin Alsop-https://www.marinalsop.com/biography/

Joann Falletta – https://joannfalletta.com

Rei Hotada- https://www.reihotoda.com

Special thanks to my friend “B.” Keep composing and teaching! You are an inspiration!!!

….keep the faith be the resistance….