Individual Artists, Composers, Performers

Values

Reflection

The clearest articulation of our values is how we act, speak, make music, and invest—both financially and emotionally—in our projects. Ask yourself: is my commitment to racial equity one that I am making at a surface level to benefit my public image or a reflection of how I am advocating for a more equitable status quo?

How do you articulate your values? How do you live your values each day?

How do your values shape your pedagogy or teaching practices?

Possible Actions

• Name a commitment to equity as part of your beliefs and practices (or artist statement).
• Make support for equity initiatives and solidarity efforts explicit in your public facing messaging.
• Include content laying out your commitment to equity in all concert materials (programs, etc).
• Actively leverage your social media platforms to draw attention to equity initiatives and solidarity actions.
• Create a policy to include discussion of equity issues in all of your educational activities.
• Start a dialogue with partnering organizations/institutions (such as a college at which you may be in residence) regarding how the partnering institution can collaborate with you in support of greater equity initiatives.
• Consider participating in practices that support awareness, like a land acknowledgment at the beginning of performances, acknowledging the Indigenous people who have inhabited and stewarded the sites you work and perform on.
• However, do not limit your participation to the symbolic: if you participate in something like a land acknowledgment, also consider what actions and initiatives a local indigenous agency is supporting in your area, such as: https://www.nuifc.org/.
• Reflect on the following questions and begin adopting the following tactics and practices.

Solidarity

Reflection

What does solidarity mean to you?

Through what means will you practice solidarity? There are many ways to exercise it: on social media, in your organization, as part of public protests, or by supporting local activists or organizers.

Ask yourself: Does your solidarity...
Last longer than a news cycle?
Happen when no one is looking?
Take away time from other things you could be doing?
Change how you spend your money?
Cause you to speak out when no one wants to listen? Nii Addo Abrahams, M.A., M. Div. (on Twitter & Instagram @_nickyflash_)

Read more in Stamborski, Zimmermann, and Gregory's Scaffolded Anti-Racist Resources.

Possible Actions

• Stand by your marginalized colleagues. Support them and speak up for them when they face exclusion or retribution. Offer to relay messages or act as a spokesperson if desired. If you have stable employment or tenure, this can be especially useful.
• Do not participate with or benefit from organizations who have been publicly named as engaging in discriminatory practices—particularly if they have failed to address them adequately.
• Reject advice not to get involved in issues merely because they are too 'sensitive' or 'political'. Such hesitation greatly hinders solidarity.
• If you teach, support your students in developing solidarity among their peers.
• When serving on panels, juries, etc, be explicit about issues of bias and inequity.
• Attend shows by (and purchase tickets or make a donation to) artists of color and BIPOC-led ensembles; buy music & merchandise.
• Question homogeneity. If you are asked to speak on a panel, ask who else will be speaking. If all the recipients of a prize are White, ask about it. If no women were considered for a job, ask about it. If you are a member of the identity group that is overrepresented, consider pointing out to the organizers how they have produced a homogenous space, and that you would surrender your spot to help disrupt it.
• However, respect autonomy. Just because one wants to be helpful does not mean they are helping. Do not commit the pitfall of appointing yourself someone’s savior. Ask them how you can be there for them and respect what they tell you.

Transparency

Reflection

Make a list of all your collaborators and colleagues, and consider an audit of their identities: how many of them are the same race as you? Gender? Disability status? Sexuality? If someone asks you about this, be honest about the result. Consider in particular which groups have historically held power and been homogenous in our field. For example, if you are White, how many of your collaborators and colleagues are White, too?

Instead of asking yourself: are there specific individuals I need to be including? Sometimes try asking yourself: Are there people I am excluding through my actions or choices? (paraphrasing Lecolion Washington)

Possible Actions

• Track data and use it to support setting future goals. Consider publishing it online if that would be appropriate. To read more about tools, resources, and considerations, visit the section on collecting data under Large Organizations.
• Develop a specific timeline and framework for publicly sharing demographic information as part of your cultural equity plan - one that respects individuals' agency and public choice of self-identification.
• Inquire about the programming history and cultural equity policies of institutions, organizations, and collaborators when working together.
• Support community efforts to encourage large organizations and funding bodies to transparently provide demographic information.
• Share how you’re learning or what you’re learning. Recommend books or articles that made an impact on you.
• Share fees and wages, especially if asked. Candidly sharing information about your salary when asked may help another person demonstrate they are being unfairly paid. If you are male or White, for example, support women and people of color to be sure they are paid equivalent fees to you. Ask–don’t presume–how to support. If you are White/male, you’re less likely to face retribution.

Learning

Reflection

Investing time to learn is critical to a pursuit of cultural equity and anti-racism, and a fruitful step for individuals to take—particularly if you are a person who is White, straight, cis, male, and/or able-bodied and able-mided. This step is especially important if you want to help but are unsure how.

In discussions on equity, people with privilege might often feel they face a paradox. On one hand, they often feel marginalized people should not have to shoulder the burden of advocating for equity alone. On the other hand, people with privilege, who cannot share a marginalized person's experience, should not dominate a conversation. Learning is indispensable to help break this cycle.

For example, many White people in conversations on race think “I’m just here to listen”, but ask yourself: is that adequate? Don’t you have to learn to speak about you and your experience, too?

Don’t be fragile, and understand that you will make mistakes. People will rightly point them out to you. We have all grown up in a society that relentlessly peppers us with negative stereotypes about people on the basis of their race, gender, sexuality, or other aspects of identity. Is it surprising that we have prejudices we must examine?

Be thoughtful and respectful, but shed the idea that only bad people are racist and good people cannot be racist. White people in particular tend to adopt this “good/bad binary.” As Robin DiAngelo puts it, that makes it hard to talk about “what [racism] is, how it shapes all of us, and the inevitable ways that we are conditioned to participate in it. If we cannot discuss these dynamics or see ourselves within them, we cannot stop participating in racism” (DiAngelo, White Fragility)

Possible Actions

• The Scaffolded Anti-Racist Resource is a terrific and wide-ranging resource to start, written by Anna Stamborski, M. Div Candidate, Nikki Zimmermann, M. Div, Bailie Gregory, M. Div, M.S. Ed. It contains activities, books, podcasts, resources, film, media, etc. (see Doc for causes to support in lieu of compensation)
• Join groups that are working on equity issues in the field of music and learn from your peers.
• Be an active participant in your community and consider how inequity at the community level can intersect with struggles against inequity in music.
• Consume media by people with different identities and life experiences than you. That might include but is not limited to people of color, LGBTQ+ people, or disabled people. Read books, articles, essays, listen to podcasts, stand-up comedy, watch TV and movies.
• Don’t just seek out work about trauma and struggle; also seek out works about joy, excellence, and resilience.
• For example, pursue books like Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad or Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing (Historical Fiction) and learning resources like Dr. Ibram Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist (Nonfiction) alongside works like Jasmine Guillory’s books (Comedy/Romance), Wanda Sykes Sick and Tired (Stand-Up Comedy), or Robin Thede’s A Black Lady Sketch Show (TV).
• (See also Guillory’s TIME article: Reading Anti-Racist Nonfiction Is a Start. But Don’t Underestimate the Power of Black Fiction)

Resources

Reflection

Consider who you invest in, artistically. When you apply for grants, how many women and/or BIPOC composers do you apply with? If you teach in a composition department, how many Black-led ensembles do you hire for residencies?

Consider who engages you artistically. If you are White, how many of your clients or employers are people of color / organizations led by people of color? If not many, why? Consider how your pricing, marketing, or social network might perpetuate a lack of heterogeneity in your clients.

Possible Actions

• Hire BIPOC photographers, sound engineers, designers, consultants, accountants, editors, and other service providers. Ensure they are paid at or above going rates.
• Purchase scores, recordings, and books created by BIPOC artists. Purchase them from the artist directly or from the publisher or label. If you listen to a record by a BIPOC artist on Spotify/Bandcamp, buy the record. If you consume free media created by a BIPOC artist (podcasts, YouTube content, whatever), make a donation or become a subscriber.
• Purchase everyday goods (groceries, takeout, household items, health and beauty items, etc) from BIPOC-owned businesses. Consider switching to a BIPOC-owned bank. Link to read more.
• Make direct contributions to BIPOC-led activist or advocacy organizations. Consider recurring/monthly donations to organizations doing anti-racist work in your community. Make your commitment publicly known and hold yourself accountable. Consider supporting or volunteering with mutual aid societies.
• Utilize your own donations to spur donations among your peers. Challenge your friends to match your donations.
• Develop a policy to facilitate people from marginalized groups to use your studio space for free or at reduced rates.

Continuing Practice

Reflection

Being privileged doesn’t mean that you are always wrong and people without privilege are always right—it means that there is a good chance you are missing a few very important pieces of the puzzle. Ijeoma Oluo, in So you want to talk about race

Consider Nii Addo Abrahams’ questions: Does your solidarity last longer than a news cycle? Does it change how you act when no one is looking?

What does a successful commitment to a practice of continued learning look like? How can you observe a commitment to continuous learning in your five year plan?

Possible Actions

• Prioritize continuous learning: no one ever “arrives” or finishes growing in their understanding of these complex issues—and the issues themselves continue to change.
• Consider a bi-annual or annual review and update of your cultural equity plan.
• Remember humility. Just because you are new to a conversation does not mean the conversation is new. Conversations on combatting discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexuality, disability, or religion all have long, rich histories.
• Create a mechanism to receive effective feedback from colleagues and collaborators that empowers people to easily and safely point out where bias or oppressive behavior has crept into your actions.
• Aim for longevity and embrace the potential for a lack of swift closure. Passion and idealism are important but do not necessarily ease the burden combatting generations of oppression. Many of the challenges we face today are centuries old; if you expect sudden quick progress, you may burn out.
• Join groups within the field that are working on equity issues and be an active participant.
• Actively recruit colleagues and students into coalitions working on equity issues and encourage their efforts to do the same.
• Continue learning as language continues to change and evolve. More nuanced and sophisticated language supports more nuanced and sophisticated conversations. This is a perpetual and largely inevitable cycle.

Sooner or later, whatever language we use to describe [a] group is going to become irradiated by [our] negative attitudes toward that group, and so the word is going to become negative, maybe even an insult, so we need a new word. Gene Demby in Code Switch: What it means to be a person of color