Are White people the ones who don’t need the color description? Ergo, does Whiteness gain social currency and capital by going unnoticed – normalized as the social default – with everyone else being branded – “pigmentized?”
It wasn’t until recently that I became fully aware of the scope of disparity in race and gender that encompasses the music composition world.
I’m now in my fifth year of teaching high school band and, up to this point, it was never really something I had considered. I would go online, to Everyone’s Favorite Music Distributor & Son, Inc.*, and peruse their lists – listening to recordings of titles that I found interesting (because, let’s be honest, we all judge a book by its cover when we’re limited on time). I used to think: “Wow, if I ever get into writing music, I should always title my piece ‘Aardvark Adventures’, or ‘Aaron’s Lofty Dreams’ so that I can make sure my titles are on the first page.” Adam Collins