I have previously discussed what appears to be an ever-expanding scope of “cultural appropriation” charges at colleges and universities. The latest controversy has arisen at Western Michigan University School of Music after a concert featured a “mostly white” choir performing African-American spirituals. “Spirituals: From Ship to Shore” was led by Salisbury University Associate Professor John Wesley Wright, who is African American. However, the racial makeup of the choir led to protests over cultural appropriation over what one advocate denounced as a “a mockery of my culture.”
WMU music major Shaylee Faught led the fight against the concert and denounced Wright’s claim that the choir was singing for all groups and all cultures. She posted an attack on Wright that said that he “sounded uneducated and ignorant” and that allowing so many whites on the choir made “a mockery of my culture.”
So apparently Western Michigan University thinks it’s ok for WHITE peoples to sing negro spirituals while the instructor talking bout “these songs don’t belong to one race”. They sure as hell DO.142K4:40 PM – Feb 20, 2020Twitter Ads info and privacy34.2K people are talking about this
The campus Black Student Union also denounced the “appalling” concert with so many whites on a choir and called for the “immediate need for racial re-education on sensitivity training and cultural competence.”
Professor Wright stood by his choir and their music. He insisted that it is the music not the race of the singers that is the important element. He insisted that the choir used their gifts to educate and celebrate African-American songs and traditions.” He added two additional points: one on defense and one on offense. He declared “I do not feel the need to have to defend what I’m doing and I’ve done this for 30 years and to great response.”
Wright also went on the attack and questioned Faught’s “motives and well being,” asking “So has anyone investigated this person?”
That comment rightfully concerned many over a personal attack on a student. However, Faught then responded in kind by saying “He tried to dismiss everything I said. That’s cool. My mental health is FINE by the way but I’m not going to argue with a grown ass man about MY OPINION.”
Putting aside the personal attacks, there remains the original issue of whether whites singing spirituals is an offense and cultural appropriation. I strongly oppose that view. These artists are celebrating different cultures and musical traditions. When I see a non-Italian singing La Traviata or Sicilian folk songs, I am not offended as a Sicilian. I am delighted that my culture is being explored by others. Listening to Marian Anderson was a thrill because she was a great artist and talent, not because she was an African American. When she sang Italian operas, it was not cultural appropriation, it was a cultural celebration.
This effort to bar whites from singing certain songs is an attack on artistic expression and free speech.
OT: For those claiming Trump is soft on Russia, I just saw this list of Trump’s strong actions against Russia. One can compile a list on paper for how tough Obama was and the paper will be near empty.
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Reversed Obama’s weakness with bold new National Security Strategy. Trump’s 2017 National Security Strategy incorporated many hard-line initiatives that the Center for Security Policy had long endorsed to reverse US strategic decline.
Restored ‘Peace Through Strength.’ Trump explicitly revived the US strategy of “Peace Through Strength” – a Reagan-era slogan that the Center promoted for 30 years, principally to prevent Russia from threatening the United States.
Pushed NATO allies to increase defense spending. Trump hammered NATO allies – hard – to devote a full 2 percent of their GDP to defense.
Strengthened NATO with tough love. Trump harshly criticized weak NATO allies, waging a “tough love” campaign intended to strengthen the alliance, which was being torn apart over issues of European Union overreach, immigration, cultural shifts, and national sovereignty.
Pressed to stop Russia-Germany gas pipeline. Trump pushed Europe to stop Putin’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Once completed, Nord Stream 2 will make Germany and other NATO allies unbreakably dependent on the Kremlin for energy, and will pump the Putin regime with tens of billions of dollars’ worth of hard currency. Trump sanctioned Western companies building the pipeline, and offered energy alternatives for Europe to cut its dependence on Russia.
Tanked Putin’s economic recovery. Trump kicked the legs out of Putin’s economic recovery by reversing Obama’s anti-energy policies and promoting massive US exports of oil and natural gas, forcing down world prices and depriving the Kremlin of its most important source of foreign exchange.
Helped Ukraine fight back for its sovereignty. Trump aided Ukraine by providing anti-tank missiles and other lethal defensive weaponry to help the country protect its sovereignty, and by pushing back against French and German pressure for Ukraine to sue for peace on terms favorable to Moscow.
Deployed new US Naval fleet to hunt Russian subs. Obama abolished the Navy’s Second Fleet in 2011, giving Russia’s next-generation subs freedom to run their doomsday cruises across the Atlantic. Trump restored the Second Fleet to intercept Russian submarines off the US Atlantic coast.
Deployed new nuclear warheads to foil Russian strategy. Trump deployed new low-yield nuclear warheads on US ballistic missile submarines to foil Russia’s “first-use” nuclear weapons doctrine.
Ordered total US strategic nuclear weapons modernization. Trump reversed Obama’s purposeful decline of the American nuclear arsenal. His 2021 defense budget request includes $28.9 billion for modernized nuclear delivery systems (missiles, aircraft, submarines, and other platforms), and $19.8 billion to modernize the nuclear stockpile.
Accelerated, massive deployment US missile defense. Trump called for a “layered missile defense” against incoming ballistic missiles – something the Center for Security Policy has called for since 1988. This year, he announced an accelerated, massive deployment of missile defense systems, and real development of missile defense weapons based in space.
Starting to take on a corrupted intelligence community. With his shakeup of the Office of National Intelligence as a start, Trump is finally taking on the monstrous failures of the US intelligence community, among other things, for its poor analytical capabilities concerning Russia and its intentions.
Reversed Obama’s Iran policy and the Gulf Arab states’ tilt toward Moscow. Trump’s reversal of Obama’s appeasement policy toward Iran had the dual effect of undermining Moscow’s key ally in Tehran, and reversing Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates’ tilt toward Russia after fearing, under Obama, that they could no longer depend on the United States.
But but but ‘collusion has been proved’ ‘Read the Mueller Report’.
On February 8, 2018 US Special Forces killed or wounded 200 Russian mercernaries when they attacked the US camp in Syria. Putin has sat on his hands ever since.
Craig, how right you are but don’t say it too loudly or the left wing crazies on this blog will make a mess of themselves.
“A Mockery Of My Culture”
It’s an easy way to get attention without any effort. Admistration approval is an easy way of proving themselves Woke. We are all worse off with these types of behavior. Such people should be shunned.
Has anyone stopped Miss Shaylee from joining the Choir and singing along?
1. Her voice may not pass the audition.
2. This is about exerting power over others and demanding deference. Joining the choir is a constructive act. That’s not what she wants.
I”ve been belatedly watching the country music series by Ken Burns on PBS. Over and over again, the series makes clear that the roots of country music are found in every group in America, including African-Americans, Appalachian whites, and virtually every ethnic group that has immigrated to this country. Cultural appropriation is the very nature of culture. Without a man in Italy, we wouldn’t have the piano. Without people whose native land was on the African continent, we wouldn’t have banjos. And on and on cultural appropriation goes.
Identity wars, class wars, racial wars are all so imbedded now in our society because our education system is proliferating these things. It will not stop and there will be no unity until the students learn to think outside the victim box.
Progressives: Gender and race are social constructs.
Also Progressives: Whites need to stop appropriating black culture.
If white folks really wanted to mock so-called black culture, we could:
1. Brawl in Chuck E Cheese pizza places in front of kids;
2. Kill somebody over a chicken sandwich;
3. Have a bunch of b*stard kids by pack of baby daddies;
4: Twerk like some kind of tramp on Facebook and Instagram;
5. Talk like a frigging moron, or like somebody who got out of slavery two seconds ago;
6. Kill somebody to take their Air Jordans;
7. Have somebody pad our test scores to get into college because we are pretty much a bunch of dummies;
8. Wear outlandish colored hair weave;
9. Shoplift everything that isn’t tied down;
10. Whine about being “po” because of slavery 150 years ago, while doing all the above items and things below;
11. Drop out of high school, or simply get passed from grade to grade by age;
12. Act like clowns and chimps and then get mad when somebody points out we act like clowns and monkeys;
13. Trash any neighborhood we move into and turn it into a third world area;
14. Riot and loot anytime we need some new shoes and booze;
15; Holler “White Lives Matter!” while neglectingsour kids, our neighbors, our neighborhoods, shooting each other over crap, selling drugs to each other, molesting the heck out our children, or letting them be molested by whatever piece of crap we are shacking with at the time, etc
16. Constantly being sticking our rear ends out in photos so everybody could see what a “fat a$$” we have;
17. Fight with the police and then holler “Racism” whenever we got shot or the beat the heck up;
18. Complain when our kids or relatives get shot breaking into homes while armed, that, “Dey dint hab to shoot DeMarqarius he was always smilin you know!”
19. Give our kids the trashiest ghetto hood rat names imaginable, so that when they apply for a job, people can tell from the application that “Shroneekra” is a black hood rat;
20. Become ghettopotami off orange cola and Doritos;
21. Let our 6 year old kid take care of the 5, 4, 3 year old and baby siblings while we run to the club or “git our hair did.”
22. etc etc etc
In short, if white people wanted to mock blacks, we would simply act like the majority of American blacks, in a stupid,violent,savage, and irresponsible manner.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
America voted for an infinitely unqualified black man as President, coddled his Administration for 8 years, just to show how tolerant and diverse we are. The end result has been the unleashing of a torrent of grievance and racial ill will.
Race relations are worse now than at any time in the last 20 years. I say this as a black man saddened by what has happened to us.
The media coddled the Administration, not people in general. Barack Obama’s connection to the domestic black population is that he married into it. When Gov. Blagojevich said ‘I’m blacker than Obama’, he spoke the truth. You cannot say the same of Colin Powell, because while his family was West Indian, he grew up immersed in a biracial matrix suffused with domestic blacks. You cannot say the same of Corey Booker either, because his parents were black in an uncomplicated way, even if the rest of the neighborhood was not.
dfdd
Obama hates America
When Jester Hairston would lead choral workshops at my home church, he would tell my father, the choir director,…” don’t give me a black choir to work with. I want white or mixed” My father was very surprised, to say the least. But that was Jester’s preference as he led his famous workshops around the world. In the 1930’s Jester and black choral icon Hall Johnson were responsible for notating, for the first time ever, the Negro Spirituals, which were public domain. So these two men saved these music treasures for future generations! It is Jester’s voice you hear in the film Lillies of the Field, dubbing Poitier’s voice..
I think these young black kids at Western Michigan should learn their forebearers` history in choral music, and get a grip and stop embarrassing themselves by their lack of knowledge!
Hey…. everybody wants to be victim.
Gene…….yup…and there’s money to made as a victim.
“Faught then responded in kind by saying ….not going to argue with a grown ass man about MY OPINION.”
Fraught responded to Professor Wright on the internet, not in person.
Social media is toxic.
One wonders what percentage of university students should not be in the university. They spend more time acting like children with temper tantrums than adults seeking higher learning.
Decrease enrollment numbers and shoot for quality.
Free Speech is a wonderful thing.
Shaylee Faught
shaylee.n.faught at wmich.edu
Let Shaylee feel the full of effect of free speech since she cloaks herself in it
https://wmich.edu/studentengagement/greek/chapters/nphc
National Pan-Hellenic Council
NATIONAL PAN-HELLENIC COUNCIL (NPHC)
The National Pan-Hellenic Council consists of fraternities and sororities. Each organization has its own specific requirements and varied timelines for aspirants to become candidates for membership. All candidates must be full-time students at Western Michigan University during the semester seeking membership. Organizations will host informational meetings where anyone can attend to learn more about the history, membership requirements, and current membership. The National Pan-Hellenic Council typically hosts a Greek 101 event for any student to engage with a panel that consists of representatives from each active organization.
Director of Internal Affairs
Shaylee Faught, shaylee.n.faught at wmich.edu
This person has too much time on her hands. This kind of complaint is frivolous in the extreme. I suppose a good pandemic or social conflagration could focus the attention of these spoiled, misguided children.
Only a WOP should sing Sicilian songs. The argument by the goofs here would result in African Americans being denied the right to dig the national anthem. Keith Richards could not have sung on stage with Chuck Berry.
We are WOKE!
Just how are Black Student Unions funded on college campuses?
Is there an equal and apportioned White Student Union?
Latino?
All student clubs should be financed through membership dues and alumni donations, with some space for grants from philanthropic foundations and interested persons outside the circle of alumni. They should never be financed by the institution above and beyond being permitted to use berths on institutional real estate. Mandatory student fees are crooked exactions and should cease everywhere.
It’s doubtful you could find a campus where racial / ethnic clubs do a bloody bit of good. In social life, blacks will cluster naturally. Manufacturing formal associations is not imperative and, in any case, you have all-black fraternities and sororities for that sort of thing. You can also arrange for AME, Convention Baptist, and Holiness clergy to be granted courtesy chaplaincies to preach on campus.
When will they give up phones, television, airplanes, antibiotics, rtc, etc, because of apprlpriation of white culture?
The whole notion of cultural appropriation is insane. Who is encouraging this idiocy?
“Pound sand.”
Then go study …
Hopefully the majority of this generation is not going to college and so will not be dumbed down also.
69.8% do.
Really dumb. Why are there not more African-Americans in the chorus?
I used to sing spirituals when I was in the Glee Club.
Me thinks they doth protest too much!!! I am both surprised and delighted that the choir director chose those selections for his choir, since I thought they had faded out of favor. Good on him and shame on those who oppose it.
Yup.
Another example of socially-sanctioned aggression. There’s a simple way to put an end to these controversies: tell the complainers to pound sand. The trouble is, the sort of people who end up in the student affairs apparat at your local college cannot manage to do that for reasons that are emotions-based and status-based.
A source of complaint is that a large fraction of black students in higher education are dissatisfied with life. They’re dissatisfied because they are having trouble keeping up with the pace in their courses. They’re having trouble because they’re a bad fit for the institution and should be in a less selective institution, at a community college, or out working. Higher education apparatchiks relax their admissions standards in a process of status-competition with other apparatchiks. The result is considerable malinvestment and injury to the supposed beneficiaries and to other parties alike.
Over 20 years ago, Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom rummaged through available data and concluded that about 30% of the blacks enrolled in law schools would not have been admitted to any law school were they not black (and that a great many of the other 70% were mismatched with the institution they were attending). Nowadays, this sort of thing has spread to every corner of higher education. About 30% to 50% of blacks enrolled at baccalaureate-granting institutions should be in community colleges or out working, and most of the rest ought to be redeployed to an institution where the pace of study is a better fit for them.
This is all such a stupid road to go down. It would be interesting (not really) to see how much “cultural appropriation” this idiot Faught is guilty of.