New York City, August 5th, 2022
An open letter to Chorus America.
On August 4th, 2022, I received an email from Chorus America. As a subscriber, I receive emails from them once in a while, so this was not supposed to be a big deal at all.
However, as soon as I started reading the contents of that email, I could not help but feel appalled by seeing racism being promoted among choral leaders. Therefore, I have some questions.
In the email that you can see attached to this text, Chorus America is promoting a new cohort this Fall for their ADEI Learning Lab (Access, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) targeting “white choral leaders seeking to address structural racism in their organizations and become better allies and accomplices to their black, indigenous, and people of color colleagues.”
If some people fail to understand how racist Chorus America as an organization is acting by promoting this narrative, let me try to explain the reason behind some of the questions I have:
1 – How can anyone determine if someone else is white, black, Asian, or people of color? Obviously, we can see how people look and categorize them according to what we see as similar, but how can we assume that we understand how hard or easy other people had it in life based on our narrow perception of what their lives look like to us?
2 – What is “Whiteness”?
3 – Where is the evidence that “Whiteness” and “White Supremacy” are real, or even a threat considering that the present moment is the year 2022, and we as a society are capable of learning from our past? Do we understand that there are no reparations that will justify and “make it even” any suffering that our ancestors had endured regardless of the reasons?
4 – Could you guys provide evidence of structural racism in any legal and compliant organization operating in 2022?
5 – Could you guys explain that, in order to fight racism, a valid approach is to single out what you consider as “white people” and assume that they share beliefs and or misunderstandings about society just because of the color of their skin?
(If you are still reading this, and you consider yourself a civil individual capable of debating ideas over personal feelings, I appreciate your time, and I ask you to keep reading until the end of this document.)
Now that I shared with the world some of the questions I have about what I consider to be racist behavior coming from Chorus America as an organization, let me share some of my opinions:
YOU WILL NEVER SOLVE RACISM BY TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE’S RACE. AS LONG AS YOU SEE RACE AS RELEVANT AND PREVALENT OVER PEOPLE’S CHOICES REGARDING THEIR OWN LIVES, YOU ARE BEING RACIST.
IF YOU STILL BELIEVE THAT “WHITE PEOPLE” HAVE IT EASIER JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE WHITE CONSIDERING THAT WE LIVE IN 2022 AND THE MAJORITY OF US HAVE TO SERVE SOCIETY IN ORDER TO SURVIVE (YES, I AM TALKING ABOUT MONEY), YOU ARE EITHER TOO STUPID TO UNDERSTAND (AND I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU), OR YOU ARE MALEVOLENT AND YOU WANT REVENGE (WHICH PROVES THAT YOU ARE NOT AS NICE AS YOU WANT TO BELIEVE YOU ARE)
CHORUS AMERICA AS AN ORGANIZATION CAN DO WHATEVER THEY WANT, BUT I RESERVE THE RIGHT THAT I HAVE TO CALL YOU ON YOUR BULLSHIT.
AMERICA IS A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY, AND IT IS THE LEAST RACIST COUNTRY IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. IF YOU THINK OTHERWISE, YOU ARE THE PROBLEM, NOT AMERICA.
CHORAL MUSIC IS AN EXAMPLE OF A GREAT ACHIEVEMENT IN A SOCIETY, IN WHICH EVERY VOICE MATTERS, AND AS LONG AS YOU ARE CAPABLE OF CONTROLLING YOUR INSTRUMENT, LISTENING TO OTHERS, FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS, AND BEHAVING PROPERLY WHEN IN DIRECT CONTACT WITH OTHERS, YOU WILL BE RESPECTED REGARDLESS OF YOUR BACKGROUND AND YOUR SKIN COLOR.
I AM ALWAYS WILLING TO CHANGE MY OPINIONS AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT. COME AFTER ME WITH DATA, LOGIC, AND WELL-SUPPORTED JUSTIFICATIONS FOR YOUR RACIST CLAIMS. IF YOU ARE STILL A PREY ON YOUR OWN FEELINGS, YOU ARE NOT BETTER THAN ANY OF US.
link for the document: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JmZ8cWMgiP_6Z5qoSDRTJQyqSF29F4rl/view?usp=sharing