Abstract
In this article, I propose some ways that music educators might become anti-racist. I explore the ways that Whiteness manifests in music education and subsequently examine actions we might take to resist this Whiteness. Ultimately, I suggest anti-racism as a way forward for music education. I delineate some of the ways that Whiteness operates in music education, not to discourage educators but rather to encourage us to notice the way Whiteness pervades our field.
Photo by Harley Seeley
How can music educators foster an anti-racist pedagogy—starting in their classrooms?
In the aftermath of George Floyd’s brutal murder by the police—one of the 1,065 people killed by the police in the United States in 20201—I was lost for words. In the face of ongoing police brutality against Black people, how might music educators respond? How is it possible even to begin to teach in the midst of unspeakable violence? How do we do so in the midst of a pandemic when we cannot even physically be with our students? How do we demonstrate solidarity with Black families in our school communities? How do we grapple with a school community that is divided into young people who have personal, lived experience of racism and young people who benefit from White privilege?
While some students know all too well the consequences of being racialized in our society, others are oblivious to the threat of violence their peers face. Navigating this uneven terrain as a teacher can be extremely difficult. At the same time, when there is a crisis, I often look first to music education to see what I might contribute. What good can be done by music educators when we look critically at the world and shape our actions accordingly?
Critical race scholar Charles W. Mills identifies global White supremacy as the unnamed global political structure operating in the world today. 2 White supremacy is the dominant ideology that structures our society and relegates Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color (BIPOC) 3 to subhuman status. 4 White supremacy is violent. It killed Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Regis Korchinski-Pacquet, and Tony McDade in addition to many others in 2020. White supremacy is also insidious. As an ideology, it pervades all facets of society. As such, it is inevitable that music education participates in White supremacy.
Because White supremacy operates in and through music education, it is our responsibility as music educators to both identify its mechanisms and work to resist it. As a White music educator, I see that as an important part of my job. Resisting White supremacy means becoming an anti-racist music educator. Anti-racist scholar Eduardo Bonilla-Silva advocates a shift from being “nonracist” to being “antiracist”: Being an antiracist begins with understanding the institutional nature of racial matters and accepting that all actors in a racialized society are affected materially (receive benefits or disadvantages) and ideologically by the racial structure. This stand implies taking responsibility for your unwilling participation in these practices and beginning a new life committed to the goal of achieving real racial equality.
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Historian and activist Ibram X. Kendi reminds us that the opposite of “racist” is not “not racist” but rather “anti-racist.” 6
The majority of music teachers in the United States are White. 7 Becoming an anti-racist music educator as a White music teacher requires grappling with the ways that White supremacy manifests in our field, in society, and within ourselves, as well as actively working to recognize White privilege and dismantle it. In this article, I highlight some of the ways that Whiteness operates in music education and subsequently identify how teachers can actively make moves to unsettle Whiteness and shape a different path forward. But first, some examples.
Vignette 1
Jeff, a White second-year teacher, surveyed his sophomore band class to determine if they were ready to play. The class was composed of predominantly White students with a few students of color. Jeff raised his baton to prep for the downbeat of a Percy Grainger piece that students would sight-read today. As his arm went up, he noticed a couple of students talking agitatedly in the back of the class. He inquired, “Anything you want to share?” Keisha, one of the two Black students in the class, spoke up: “Why do we have to play a song by another White guy? This whole year. White guys. I want to play something by a Black composer.” Around her, there were murmurs of agreement. Other students looked surprised. Jeff felt defensive. Pedagogically, the Grainger was sound and he knew from experience that it would work well to support the intonation work the class was struggling with. He mentally reviewed the year’s repertoire. Surely it wasn’t all White men. He hadn’t noticed, but as he thought about the pieces they had played, he realized Keisha was right. He pushed down his defensiveness and responded, “That’s a really good question, Keisha. Let’s talk about how that might have happened.”
Vignette 2
It was the morning after George Floyd was killed by the police. Amanda, an experienced White music teacher, thought about the diverse middle school student population at the school where she taught. She was worried about the trauma they may be experiencing. Since the COVID-19 pandemic had closed schools, she had been part of efforts to distribute school lunches to students who participated in the free and reduced-price lunch program. She was scheduled to meet with students in a few minutes and had a music lesson planned. Internet access and availability of devices had proved difficult for some students, and she didn’t know who would be online. As she logged on to meet with the students, she noticed the somber faces. One student’s face was visibly tear-stained. She looked carefully at these seventh-grade students, many of whom were Black. She decided instantly she would not teach her lesson. This moment was not the time. She said slowly, “I just want to check in. How are you doing today? How can I help?”
Vignette 3
Susan looked at the fourth-grade class and smiled. She was a White woman in her tenth year of teaching. Today she would introduce “Land of the Silver Birch.” She had a beautiful Orff arrangement for it, and every year she taught the song, it became a favorite. She passed out the textbooks to reinforce students’ music literacy. Students opened their books to a cartoon of a girl in a headdress. Susan taught the song by rote, singing a line and having students repeat the music back to her. They quickly learned the song. She noticed Liam in the corner. Liam was glowering at the textbook. She said, “Liam, please join us.” He shook his head. “What’s wrong?” Susan inquired. He jabbed at the picture in the book. “This is a stereotype. Is this supposed to be a song from my people?!” He looked incredulous. Susan had forgotten that Liam was one of two Indigenous students in the school. He continued: “It even sounds like a stereotype. It doesn’t sound like my music.” Susan paused. She hadn’t considered the picture in the textbook. She had barely noticed it, thinking only of the notation she wanted students to be able to read. Now she stared at it. Of course it was a stereotype. But what about the music? What did the music convey about Indigeneity? She thought about the open fifths and the syllables symbolizing the drum. She could feel the blood rushing to her face. “Liam, I hadn’t thought of that. I think you may be right.” She turned to the class and asked, “How do you think this song represents a stereotype?”
Whiteness and Music Education
Whiteness pervades music education. Following sociologists Charles Gallagher and France Winddance Twine, I view Whiteness as an expression of White supremacy. 8 Whiteness is present in our repertoire and in our curriculum. It is present in our emphasis on notation over aurality. It is present in the instruments that are available to students and in the comportment we expect of them. Moreover, it is present in who participates in ensembles and who can ultimately become a music teacher. Attending to the ways that Whiteness manifests in music education may allow teachers to address it and make moves toward anti-racism.
First, Whiteness manifests in repertoire chosen for the classroom and in the tradition of music represented. In the United States and Canada, music education in schools often aligns with an ensemble paradigm—a band, orchestra, or choir model of music education. 9 Ensembles offer many benefits to students. 10 They also require a type of repertoire that features predominantly White male composers. It is not uncommon to see primarily White male composers included on concert programs of major orchestras. 11 While teachers’ research and effort can ensure the inclusion of composers of color and women, the form dictated by ensembles remains situated in a Western European tradition. Although the multicultural movement has spurred the addition of musics from other traditions, 12 the ensemble paradigm remains at the center of many music programs. 13 Acknowledging the ways that Eurocentricity is tangled up in Whiteness becomes part of the work needed to address the Whiteness of music education. Scholars of critical race theory (CRT) critique Eurocentricity 14 and encourage educators to center other traditions in our praxis. 15 In doing so, we must ensure that we are not tokenizing these traditions but rather that we provide rich contextualization that communicates their value.
Folk song repertoire also raises issues of racism. Many of the folk songs typically included in elementary classroom repertoire emerged from the blackface minstrelsy tradition, including songs like “Jump Jim Joe” (“Jump Jim Crow”) and “Jimmy Crack Corn/Blue-Tail Fly.” 16 Blackface minstrelsy dates back to the 1840s and originally involved White performers coloring their skin black in order to ridicule African Americans. 17 Performing minstrel songs in the classroom actively exposes students to a racist practice and also potentially communicates that the teacher condones the practice.
Second, Eurocentricity often dominates the curriculum. 18 Beyond the ensemble paradigm, in general music, musics selected for study are often situated in Western traditions. Folk music frequently makes up a significant portion of the curriculum. When teachers select musics that represent non-Western traditions for classroom use, it is unfortunately still possible to teach them in a way that centers Whiteness. We can ask ourselves, for example, which musical traditions make up the bulk of our curricula. Representation matters, and if the majority of music in our curricula is Western or Eurocentric, that communicates a message of what we value to students. If our curricula include a wide range of musics, we can ask other questions: Are we communicating an oral tradition through notation? Are we maintaining the complexity of the music studied? Are we communicating that this non-Western music is somehow simpler than the Western musics studied? Answers to these questions may help us recognize when we center Whiteness or Eurocentricity even when we introduce non-Western musics.
Third, notation and notational literacy dominate modes of transmission in music education. 19 Many musics beyond Western classical music center aurality as a primary mode of transmission. Students, as well, often prefer learning aurally. 20 When notational literacy is the goal, it reinforces Western classical music as the tradition worthy of study. The publishing industry aims to market and sell music resources to teachers, so non-Western musics are often notated. This effort makes them more accessible to music teachers, who typically read notation fluently and are comfortable with that mode of transmission. 21 Notating musics from oral traditions often leads to the complexity of those musics getting lost. Rhythms that may require double dots or ties are altered so that they fit more easily into Western standard notation. 22 Notation also fails to capture the elements of music not typically valued in Western traditions, such as timbre and the social context of the performance. Addressing the Whiteness inherent in privileging Western standard notation as a mode of transmission requires becoming comfortable with aurality and employing it when teaching musics that people typically learn aurally. The musics themselves should dictate the mode of transmission, allowing teachers to focus on oral traditions when appropriate and varied notation systems, including Western standard notation, depending on the music.
Fourth, we see Whiteness reproduced through the instruments available for study. In the Western ensemble paradigm, instruments typically available to students include instruments that belong in the concert band, wind ensemble, or orchestra. These instruments predetermine the music played, and the music played simultaneously dictates the instruments required—an uneasy cycle that centers Eurocentric music and upholds Whiteness. While drumming, mariachi, steel pan, and popular music programs are becoming more prevalent in the United States and Canada, these programs may still play a supporting role in Western classical-centered curricula. In interrogating Whiteness, teachers can question which instruments are available to students and to which musics these instruments lead.
Fifth, Whiteness operates in the comportment we expect of our students in response to music. As critical race scholar Ruth I. Gustafson observes, ideal music listeners have the comportment of Auguste Rodin’s sculpture The Thinker and listen to music without moving their bodies. They pay “attention to rhythmic detail but [make] no indication of it.” 23 Still comportment in response to music is antithetical to many musical practices. It is a norm, however, in Western classical music and another signal of Whiteness when it becomes a classroom expectation. 24
Sixth, as many music programs become optional, particularly at the secondary level, they often serve a population of students that is Whiter than the overall school population. Elpus and Abril observed that of the 21 percent of high school seniors in 2004 who participated in school music ensembles, White students were significantly overrepresented at 65.7 percent in ensembles. Ensemble participants also predominantly came from higher socioeconomic backgrounds, were native English speakers, performed well on standardized tests, were children of parents with advanced postsecondary degrees, and had high grade point averages. Their findings noted that music students are not representative of the overall population of U.S. high school students. 25 As we note the overrepresentation of White students in optional music ensembles, we might consider the Whiteness of ensemble practices and social norms and wonder how we might better serve BIPOC students.
Finally, we might also consider who becomes a music teacher. Music teachers in the United States are predominantly White. 26 Music education scholar Julia Eklund Koza points to the audition process at postsecondary institutions as a likely barrier to BIPOC students wishing to become music teachers. Indeed, she argues that the audition process operates as a covert “listening for Whiteness.” 27 Students well-versed in traditions outside Western classical music often need to succeed at a Western classical audition to gain a place in a music education program. To do so requires extensive private lessons, which necessitate a higher socioeconomic status. The gatekeeping mechanism of auditions remains one of the ways of preserving Whiteness in music education.
I delineate some of the ways that Whiteness operates in music education not to discourage educators but rather to encourage us to notice how Whiteness pervades our field. Koza advocates listening for Whiteness in admissions processes not to affirm it, but to recognize its institutional presence, understand its technologies, and defund it. 28 We cannot address Whiteness in music education if we do not recognize its presence and modes of operation. Once we notice these technologies, however, we can work toward changing them. When we acknowledge the Whiteness in music education, as educators, we can make different choices and work toward anti-racism.
Anti-Racism in Music Education
Canadian anti-racist scholar George J. Sefa Dei describes anti-racism as an action-oriented educational strategy for institutional, systemic change to address racism and interlocking systems of social oppression. It is a critical discourse of race and racism in society that challenges the continuance of racializing social groups for differential and unequal treatment. Anti-racism explicitly names the issues of race and social difference as issues of power and equity, rather than as matters of cultural and ethnic variety.
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Dei’s focus on power facilitates a strong critique of Whiteness embedded in the nature of anti-racism. The action orientation of anti-racism also becomes important. Anti-racism orients toward equity and justice and further seeks to address racism embedded in institutions and policies, moving beyond the scope of breaking down individual prejudices. 30 The anti-stance of anti-racism requires an action orientation. Rather than a passive stance, the “anti-” of anti-racism indicates active opposition to racism and White supremacy. 31
Given that practices in music education serve to uphold Whiteness, what strides might we make in music education to become anti-racist—to defund Whiteness, as Koza suggests? As we consider the degree to which Whiteness is steeped in our practices, defensiveness may be a natural response. Rather than allow the defensiveness to impede action, however, I suggest that we take it as a clue that we need to dig deeper. Education philosopher Megan Boler suggests that a “pedagogy of discomfort” might be a way to challenge values and cherished beliefs and begin to notice what we choose not to see. 32 In music education, practices steeped in Whiteness have become cherished for many. Rather than turn away from the discomfort that comes with noticing the embedded Whiteness in cherished practices, I suggest that we turn toward this discomfort and see what it unearths. What might it mean to turn toward the Whiteness of music education? In the earlier vignettes, the teachers all leaned into what likely would become a difficult conversation. Acknowledging Whiteness and its manifestations requires this kind of leaning in.
Earlier in this article, I explored how Whiteness operates in music education through the centering of Western classical music and the ensemble paradigm, through repertoire, in curriculum, in the privileging of notation and still comportment, and in the instruments available to students. Whiteness also manifests in the bodies of the students who elect to participate in high school ensembles, as well as in the predominantly White music teaching force in the United States. Elsewhere I have suggested a “pedagogy of noticing” as a means to notice and challenge inequities and injustices. 33 To defund Whiteness, however, requires moving beyond noticing toward action.
Positionality
First, one of the crucial steps in defunding Whiteness involves attending to positionality in our classrooms. Black feminist Patricia Hill Collins puts forward the “matrix of domination” as a way to understand how different oppressions intersect across a range of contexts. 34 The matrix of domination accounts for all facets of identity, including but not limited to race, class, gender, disability, sexual identity, age, religion, and national status. The matrix helps us understand the uneven playing field upon which students are situated. It helps us see where students may have privilege and where they may be oppressed and allows us to act accordingly. What we see as students’ “ability” is not inherent but rather structured by their privileges, which we can understand by applying the matrix framework. Accounting for these privileges means both putting structures in place to level the playing field in our own classrooms and understanding that “ability” is a social construct that may change entirely when we work, as educators, to address oppression.
Moving away from Eurocentricity
Second, much of the Whiteness embedded in music education is rooted in its Eurocentricity—the embrace of Western classical music, Western standard notation, and White, Western composers as the gold standard for music education. As noted, critical race theory specifically challenges Eurocentricity. Change, then, requires turning toward different musical practices. We can look, for example, to youth-driven music-making as a way to inform our curriculum. Attending to youth’s music may lead us to hip-hop and other musics of import to youth. Turning toward these musics requires creating centers in music education that are not Eurocentric. Elsewhere, I have suggested multicentricity as a way forward. 35 Multicentricity centers students in their own experiences and grounds them in their own cultural referents before moving to the unfamiliar. 36 This pedagogy does not mean that we never engage with Eurocentric music. It simply means we situate that music as one among many and place equal if not greater import on musics that young people value.
Turning toward Aurality
Third, resisting Whiteness in music education also requires a turn toward aurality. Many of the world’s musical practices use aural transmission. Valuing aurality means eschewing the “sound before symbol” approach of multiple elementary pedagogies. Instead, we can value sound for sound’s sake and not assume that the only path of significance involves arriving at the symbol. Aurality, as it is currently situated in music education, often serves as a means to an end—notational literacy. Instead we can center aural practices and oral traditions and acknowledge their sophistication. Aurality in music education often manifests as teaching by rote. This “I sing a line; you sing it back” is antithetical to most oral traditions in which call-and-response, improvisation, or enculturation through repetitious hearing with increasing participation might be more prevalent. Encouraging the sophistication and complexity of aurality offers another way to unsettle Whiteness. Fostering aurality does not mean never using Western standard notation. Rather, we might situate notation as one possible path to music-making rather than the path. As noted earlier, the musics themselves should dictate the transmission approach. Teachers can replicate a music’s typical transmission practice in the classroom.
Courageous Conversations 37
Fourth, we can also practice calling out Whiteness and racism when we see it and being open to students raising what they observe. These difficult conversations may be the most challenging to turn toward. Naming Whiteness and racism, however, are among the most important tools we have in resisting racial injustice. In a music education context, this might mean talking about how Western classical music has come to be privileged in music education. As expressed in the earlier vignettes, it might mean having frank conversations about the Whiteness of composers or the stereotypical nature of a piece of music. Noticing the Whiteness requires action. Like “Land of the Silver Birch,” many of the songs that represent different groups in music education perpetuate stereotypes. As noted, some songs also emerge from the historical practice of blackface, such as “Jump Jim Joe” (formerly “Jump Jim Crow”). It is time to retire these songs. Embracing anti-racism in music education necessitates acting on the Whiteness and racism that we notice or the students notice in our classrooms. It necessitates challenging and improving the traditions in which we were trained.
Addressing Policy
While some of the moves away from Whiteness are pedagogical and curricular, others are rooted in policy. Music education scholar Patrick Schmidt argues that policy is a practice and advocates for educators to become well versed in policy and its influence on education in order to play an active role in policymaking and policy change. 38 As an example of policy that shapes music teaching, audition practices currently determine who becomes a music teacher. In the majority of postsecondary music institutions in the United States and Canada, studio teachers, as opposed to music education faculty, determine which students are admitted to music education programs through a Western classical audition. This practice means that students well versed in Western classical music and another musical practice may be admitted, but students fluent in only a non classical practice or who have limited experience with Western classical music will not be successful. Hip-hop musicians and pop music singer-songwriters without extensive experience with Western classical music will likely not be admitted and thus will not become music teachers. This policy means that the Whiteness of music teachers will continue, as Koza has demonstrated. 39 Ibram Kendi urges us to look at policies that perpetuate racism in our efforts toward anti-racism. 40 As teachers, we have much more control over the curricular and the pedagogical. Policy, however, as Schmidt notes, is the “realm in and through which educational vision is actualized.” 41 As such, envisioning an anti-racist music education involves engaging with and challenging policies that propagate racism and Whiteness.
Challenging the Whiteness of music education remains a tall task. What I have suggested here are a few places to begin. I urge music educators to turn toward discomfort and defensiveness when they arise and work through them toward different possibilities. An anti-racist music education will likely foster a population different from the White high school students currently overrepresented in ensembles. 41 Youth-driven music education offers exciting possibilities—a wide array of musics and deep valuing of youth’s lived experiences. Music education is steeped in Whiteness. Listening for Whiteness, however, will allow us to address it and move to action. In this moment—a moment when the public is coming to recognize the ways that anti-Black racism continually manifests—we all have a role to play. As music educators, we have to attend to the racism within our own field. Music education can contribute to justice efforts, and lifting up anti-racism in music education provides a clear path forward.
Resources for Further Education on Anti-Racism
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press, 2012.
DiAngelo, Robin. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2018.
Kendi, Ibram X. Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. New York: Nation Books, 2016.
Kendi, Ibram X. How to Be an Antiracist. New York: One World, 2019.
Morris, Monique W. Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools. New York: The New Press, 2016.
Oluo, Ijeoma. So You Want to Talk about Race. New York: Seal Press, 2018.
Saad, Layla F. Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2020.
