[Harp-L] Race, Gender and Blues



Dear BP,

For a first post, I seem to have really jumped into the middle of a hot
topic. I was surprised by how many responses I have gotten so quickly. They
have all been polite and supportive so far. Feel free to stir the pot.

It's more than OK not to agree, and I am not in the least upset by what you
have said. You are certainly entitled to your opinion and your opinion is
valuable. While I don't believe you are correct I am enough of a man to
allow for the fact that maybe I'm the one who is wrong. Obviously, l
respectfully disagree and am by no means offended. I hope you don't feel
offended either, but I always try to speak what I believe to be the truth.
Let me make an attempt to convince you.

The question for me is not whether or not there is "room in a festival" for
minority performers. If you were excluded from a gig BECAUSE you were Black
and without regard to your talent that would be SERIOUSLY WRONG. I would be
both ignorant of musical history and a moron to suggest that Black people
can't play the blues. There may be a huge number of Black performers who
know how to play the blues well. I am more concerned with.... Who are the
best of the available performers that want to work that particular gig?

I would be equally stupid to suggest that Asians, Polish, Italians, etc.
are not capable by reason of some accident of birth to perform blues
equally well, if not better than anyone else DEPENDING ON THE INDIVIDUAL
and their skill as performers. I am troubled by the fact that we feel that
minorities somehow feel ENTITLED to have a slot RESERVED for a member of
their particular group at an event. My ax to grind is whether that
"minority" performer (especially one who expects a preference) is at least
as good or better than some other non-minority performer who wants the same
gig. As someone else has written to me, it should be all about "HARP TONE
AND NOT SKIN TONE"

It would never occur to me to tell someone who is Black, female, or a part
of some other ethnic or racial group that a Caucasian should be the
preferred performer for Bach, Strauss, Chopin, Beethoven or Mozart because
it is in their Caucasian/European roots. In my opinion that would be
clearly racist/sexist. In the end I feel it is all about who has the best
and most chops being the performer. Should I be upset if the persons
selected to play a Bach recital are all Black, Hispanic and Japanese?
Should I have gotten "first dibs" because of my European ancestry? Should
you have to be Italian to play Scarlatti? It was a male dominated society
during the days of those composers, so shouldn't men be preferred over
women? We should get politics and political correctness out of concert
venues and the arts.

I have no problems with someone who is British giving an American newscast
as long as Americans who wanted that job weren't discriminated against
BECAUSE they were American or for some other equally improper reason. If a
Brit or Aussie does the news well and covers the news fairly, it does not
make what they say any less valid or any less "American news". I feel the
same about music. The magic of the performance is in the individual
performer and not in their DNA. I don't know if we have ever met at an
event, and you may well be a great musician. I can't speak for those who
made hiring decisions that affected you, maybe you were discriminated
against. Understand that I have no way to know that, and I only speak in
generalities here.

We have a Congressional Black Caucus, a Congressional Hispanic Caucus,
etc., yet it would be racist if we had a Congressional White Caucus. I feel
that there should be no Caucuses at all based on ethnicity, race, gender,
religion, sexual orientation, or for any other equally dubious reason. It
divides us all and feeds the victim and "I'm different so I should be
treated differently" mentalities. I truly believe that kind of thinking is
why people espouse the kind of positions that were in the underlying
article that made me feel compelled to post.

Hopefully your talent and chops will be clear to those making hiring
decisions in the future. Musical hiring choices are often largely
subjective. As far as I am concerned, I have no illusions about my low
ability level and I can assure you that it is very doubtful that we will
ever compete for a gig. I am just saying it should all be about playing the
music and nothing else.

Regards,

Howard Herman


On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 2:43 PM, Boogieman Peeps
<boogiemanpeeps@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> Not to stir the pot on race regarding the blues, but............... if I
> were a black blues musician and I was overlooked for a festival that was
> chocked full of white blues artist that I am just as good or perhaps better
> than -- I would be "upset".  I get aggravated at the news channels giving
> the gigs to British figureheads to do my news, entertainment,
> business,etc.  I fail to understand why black artists would NOT be
> offended.  It's not authentic American news when you hire a foreigner to my
> land tell me the news in my backyard.
>
> My original post was directed to the fact that hip hop and rap are taking
> the masses attention and therefore the black artists are attracted to the
> money - reducing the number of black artist in the blues -- while white
> blues artists and particularly female blues artists are seeming to thrive
> in the much smaller blues market.  It also seems to me that hip hop and rap
> are actually the blues of black society today.  There are plenty of black
> bluesmen available for hire today that know how to play the blues.  There
> is plenty of room in a festival at the very least.
>
> Now surely I have not offended anyone by speaking freely?  It seems
> someone is always offended these days about something.  I'm okay with your
> opinion.  Mine are seldom correct anyway, but they are mine until you
> convince me otherwise.
>
> Boogie
>
>
>



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