The Music Department where I teach had a lunchtime program today. They showed the documentary When I Rise about the opera singer Barbara Smith Conrad (I hadn't heard of her before). She is a black woman from East Texas and in 1956 she went of to the University of Texas in Austin to study music. U of T has just been integrated, though the black student population was miniscule and they were not allowed to live in housing for whites, nor eat in restaurants for whites. It was a hostile environment.
Barbara persevered. The next year was the first time U of T Music Dept. put on an opera with student singers. Barbara was cast as the female lead. That's when the storm hit. The male lead, and her character's love interest, was white. Once the legislature (meeting not far away) heard about it they demanded she be forced out. The loudest voice was the guy representing her home town. Barbara felt betrayed by the Music Department and the Dean of Fine Arts.
After graduation she went on to a successful opera career.
I bring it up because of the comments made by the legislature in the process of ousting her from the opera cast. The main theme was protecting white rights. Today it is the same tune, different verse, all about protecting straight rights and religious rights. As near as I can figure out this means protecting the right to bully another class of people.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment