Music professor sues university for defamation

Music professor sues university for defamation

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norman lebrecht

January 24, 2021

Professor Timothy Jackson has issued proceedings against the University of Northern Texas for removing him as editor of a music theory journal and calling an investigation into his defence of the theorist Heinrich Schenker, whom a colleague, Philip Ewell, attacked as racist.

Jackson found himself hounded by a mob of international musoclogists who called for his head.

He is claiming defamation by 17 named colleagues and is likely to have his day in court.

It’s the entire deteriorating discipline of musicology that ought to be put in the dock.

 

Comments

  • J Barcelo says:

    What needs to be put in the dock is the simplistic, evil charge of “racist” anytime someone does or says something you disagree with. But the left gets away with it because the compliant media goes along. Do I need to hide my well-worn, old college text on Schenkarian analysis before the mob finds out I have it? Or should I just burn it before they do?

    • Rogerio says:

      The Professor will be OK as long as he wasn’t seen defending Heinrich Schenker in the Capitol Building in Washington DC on Jan 6th.

    • Karl says:

      You have to start watching more FOX news and opinion programs. Tucker Carlson has been going on about the charges of being a ‘white nationalist’ for years.

  • PHF says:

    Juicy… let’s see how far this goes.

    • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

      It will probably end badly for Jackson. He lost his position not because of the racism accusations, but because he didn’t follow editorial procedure. Meanwhile, he’s inviting UNT’s lawyers to scour every imaginable record for anything that can be used to publicly undermine his credibility. And I’ve got some of that. They’ll probably find it.

  • anon says:

    Texas juries are known for rewarding huge monetary damages.

    And Texas is not exactly a BLM state.

    Sucks to be one of those 17 defendants.

    • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

      Texans are playing to publish a journal most of them aren’t allowed to read. If they could read it, they might not want to keep paying for it. It’s roughly equivalent to phrenology journal. At the end of this process, don’t be surprised if UNT just shuts down the whole Center for Schenkerian Studies.

  • marcus says:

    Yank musicology-the gift that keeps on giving. I will be running out of popcorn at this rate.

  • Duncan says:

    I do not agree that musicology is a ‘deteriorating discipline’. Yes it is true that there are many research articles that seem to want to provoke the wrath of ‘traditionalists’, but surely free speech should be upheld. If we don’t agree with the viewpoints expressed in various writings, we can either just ignore them or we can put our own views into writing. Shutting down research serves no purpose. Remember that what seems controversial or revolutionary today may be tomorrow’s normal. As a personal example, speaking purely about popular music, I am constantly reminded that songs and styles that I tended to hate or despise about 40 years ago have now become classics that I now like. With regard to the Schenker debate mentioned above, I tend to side with Tim Jackson: leave Schenker alone. In the grand scheme of things he is pretty harmless!

    • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

      Schenkerians don’t broadly support free speech for anyone but other Schenkerians. Moreover, they will end your career if you ask questions they don’t want to answer.

  • K says:

    I hope he wins his case.

  • Patrick says:

    “It’s the entire deteriorating discipline of musicology that ought to be put in the dock.”

    Bingo, yes, nailed it.

  • Alank says:

    May he triumph completely and unequivocally in his civil suit. And I hope he bankrupts these 21st century thugs. If they are not stopped now America will become a somewhat lighter version of the USSR. Replace the indictment of formalism” with accusations of “racism” and explain to me what is the difference?

    • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

      The claim seems to be that he lost his position because of accusations of racism. He probably won’t be able to prove that.

  • caranome says:

    It’s not only in musicology, but just about anywhere–leftist fascism running amok. The sad part is that most people are cowed into submission, and those in authority are either aiding/abetting or lack the backbone to stand up to it. The Destructive Left has been doing this for the past 40 years, and the Right has been pooh-pooing it as ridiculous, childish and just a phase going thru the universities, but now it has exploded out in the open and penetrated deep in all major institutions with no end in sight. Cultural Revolution anyone?

    • K says:

      caranome-

      You must be in front of one of those trick mirrors at a circus side-show, you know the ones where the image is a total distortion of reality.

      The only fascist movement I can think of is the one perpetrated by the Great Orange One, with it’s pièce de résistance being the storming of the seat of our democracy by a bunch of miscreant thugs in red hats, threatening bodily harm to the elected representatives of the US of both parties.

      “The sad part is that most people are cowed into submission…” Yes, I know what you mean. 74 plus million delusional people thinking that His Fat Ass really had any genuine concern for them or their issues. He doesn’t and never will. His entire administration was about the grift. Bet you even gave up some of your hard earned cash.

      “Cultural Revolution anyone?” Yes – send all the traitors and reprobate thugs to Russia where they can enjoy endless personal freedom. You can catch a movie at the new Putin theater. His Orangeness is there. He’s the popcorn concession attendant.

      plm

    • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

      Being falsely accused of racism isn’t licence to publish a journal without peer review and publicize it as peer reviewed. But that’s what Jackson did, and that’s why he lost his position. And the specific people whom Jackson is suing seem to have only accused him of racism AFTER he broke editorial rules.

  • Jim says:

    I check this blog for the first time in months and the first thing I see is you defending a man who lost his sh*t and spewed racist attacks at a man who correctly called out white supremacy in departments of “music theory”. It is very similar to the way in which you lost your sh*t when a black hip-hop artist won a Pulitzer Prize – essentially arguing that hip-hop isn’t music, or at least not comparable to Serious Classical Music made by white people. I won’t be back to read this constant defence of white supremacy and everyone in the classical music world who participates in this should be ashamed of themselves.

    • Marvin says:

      Jews are the originators of white supremacy. Simply look at the disgusting lack of diversity in synagogues, temples, jccs, etc.

      They’d better start being more inclusive. Otherwise Biden and the klan will be legislating it FOR them in order to retain one’s 501c3 status in blanket laws or by fiat. You know the kind. Those precious Executive Orders Biden is signing mandating illegal immigrant “rights”, compulsory mask wearing for federal employees (except him and raggedy Anne the PS with no answers) and the lot. Can’t wait to see more blacks worshipping in synagogue.

      • Eden says:

        Marvin, I guess you weren’t at the Capitol in January 6 to see he cast majority of thousands of white people there, some of them carrying Confederate flags and wearing Camp Auschwitz sweat shirts. How many Blacks were in the pews of Southern Baptist churches during the Jim Crow era? I am a 99% Ashkenazi Jew who belonged to a synagogue whose rabbi was active in the Civil Rights movement and who welcomed MLK, Jr to speak. Ashkenazi Jews are ethnically Eastern European. Descendants from the African continent did not migrate to Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, etc. and thus are not grounded in our religious or cultural heritage. Your antisemitism and ignorance are appalling—and it’s shocking to see so many on this site endorse your comment.

        • Albert Lubin says:

          To be clear, the discrimination of blacks and other minorities by Jews needs to END!

          Jews have to integrate their houses of worship and neighborhoods like the rest of society if they want to remain on American soil.

          “I am a 99% Ashkenazi Jew who belonged to a synagogue whose rabbi was active in the Civil Rights movement and who welcomed MLK, Jr to speak.”
          – How many blacks were active members of your congregation then?

          – How many blacks are currently active members of your congregation now?

          You are a typical racist Jew with your ‘we know black people’ garbage yet remain all white. You and those like you must be deprogrammed from your white privilege.

          Our beloved President Biden, VP Harris and the diverse Democrat house and senate leadership will be forcing the change you people need very soon by legal and financial fiat.

          Thank God for the liberating NYT 1619 project. It will be compulsory, standardized teaching just as we’ve seen with across the board women’s and civil rights teachings of recent times. Unification will bring this long needed change as Obama pushed for.

          • Sharon says:

            Part of the problem is the obstacles that anybody has in order to convert to Judaism. This is changing and there are more and more Jews of color although the process is slow.

            Technically synagogue membership and membership to other organizations is open to everybody who has the money, which also excludes many Jews.

            Socially Black Jews are slowly becoming more accepted in synagogues and other Jewish organizations. More and more Jewish couples are also adopting Black children.

            The process is slow but things are getting better.

          • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

            UNT isn’t a house of worship. It’s not protected by the same laws that require government to tolerate possibly racist practices in houses of worship. UNT is a public research university, paid for with public money. If you want to see houses of worship somehow cleaned up, your greater priority should be to first clean up public institutions.

        • Jonisha says:

          “Descendants from the African continent did not migrate to Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, etc. and thus are not grounded in our religious or cultural heritage.”

          WHAT?!?!?! That is no reason to discriminate against black people! You’re a deplorable racist Eden. Wait until Kamala Harris gets wind of people like you. Prepare to comply or get canceled!

          • Eden says:

            Our synagogue was located in the only integrated neighborhood in Chicago, Obama’s neighborhood. Our synagogue welcomed every single person who wanted to join. No exclusion whatsoever. I currently belong to a synagogue with Black members. It’s a matter of choice and choice emerges from cultural heritage. How many Jews belong to AME Baptist churches? Or Lutherans for that matter. All this is obvious. My ancestors came from ghettoes and shtetls of Eastern Europe. We continued our affiliation in this country. Most of our synagogue members had the same background. There is no racism here, no exclusion. Anybody is welcome to join and become part of our heritage.

          • K says:

            Nice try “Jonisha”.

        • HugoPreuss says:

          Has it occurred to you that it might be irony? At least I assume (and hope) it is.

          • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

            Schenkerians mostly don’t understand irony. If they did, they couldn’t be Schenkerians.

        • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

          Racism tends to be incoherent. Maybe because if racist could think more coherently, they wouldn’t be racists.

      • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

        Who started it hardly matters. Whoever started it is long dead at this point. Why not focus on thwarting the current practitioners?

    • marcus says:

      watch the door on your way out.

    • Bone says:

      Well…bye.

    • Larry says:

      You are not seeing the bigger picture. We are not learning early medieval history from what was happening in Australia or Greenland, we are mainly focusing on Europe, Middle East and Far East, places where significant for humanity events were happening. Music theory shouldn’t be taught about what drums were preferred in country A or what balalaika design was dominant in country B. That is World Music theory, and it always will be a niche field, because it had minimal to no impact globally at the time of its creation. Classical music is the most evolved form of musical expression and there is nothing racist in saying that, just as serious novels are a higher form of expression than village limericks. If you continue on the path undertaken by some musicologists, soon Ancient Greece will be banned for all the musical modes that most of European music evolved from.

    • Midwest Branch says:

      Even Tyshawn Sorey—a first-rate classical-jazz musician—had qualms about the Lamar Pulitzer. There were many Black classical composers who deserved that award and, as non-commercial artists, would have benefitted enormously from it in ways that pop stars could not imagine.

      • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

        I appreciate that people were angry about the bait and switch. The road to the Pulitzer had been established for POC’s by means of performing whiteness, and then someone got a Pulitzer by not performing whiteness. If I understand correctly, Ewell was also performing whiteness right up until he met with the 2 year tenure battle that made him realize people can’t acquire whiteness just by performing whiteness. Not only is the playing field not level, but the goalposts are movable. But why blame the Pulitzer organization? All they did was level the field and refuse to move the goalposts. Even if they did this for token or experimental purposes, they at least did it once.

  • It’s a good thing says:

    The Left continue to mindlessly eat their own in all occupations until they each disappear.

  • I’ll note that it is the University of North Texas, not “Northern”

    • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

      It’s a great place for a music research center that conducts music research that’s less musically useful than racistically useful.

  • D** says:

    Always be objective. Watch out for hasty generalizations. Look carefully at all viewpoints. Avoid ad hominem attacks. Make sure there’s plenty of solid evidence to support your conclusion.
    These sensible rules were emphasized constantly in my high school and university writing courses, but it’s sad that many in the academic world think these guidelines no longer apply.

    My undergraduate theory professors were not fans of Schenkerian analysis, and I’m not very familiar with it. At the same time, I can understand how it has value as a way to analyze and better understand tonal pieces.

    Heinrich Schenker may have had some personal flaws, but it’s quite a stretch to call him a racist. Because he was Jewish, some of his contemporaries never made him part of their in-crowd. His wife was murdered by the Nazis. Schenker and others of his generation may have been convinced that music from their part of the world was superior to all other music. While this attitude was unfortunate, the vast quantity of great music produced there can never be dismissed.

    Abraham Lincoln talked about sending freed slaves back to Africa.
    FDR set up internment camps for Japanese Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. cheated on his wife. Laura Bush caused the death of a classmate as a teenager when she drove her car through a stop sign. Tchaikovsky made plenty of anti-Semitic remarks during his life. We can point out the shortcomings of these five people, but it’s unfair to remember them only for their shortcomings.

    Let’s hope Timothy Jackson’s efforts are successful.

    • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

      [My undergraduate theory professors were not fans of Schenkerian analysis, and I’m not very familiar with it. At the same time, I can understand how it has value as a way to analyze and better understand tonal pieces.]

      If you’re not familiar with it, how do you understand its value?

      Why do you even think it’s “analysis”?

      And how does one “understand” a tonal piece better by using these analyses?

      It seems to me you’ve made yourself an unwitting pawn in this fraud.

      It also seems that you’re typical of most of the people defending Schenkerism this year:
      white people who have never studied Schenkerian theory.

      And you are white, aren’t you? How do I know?

      [Heinrich Schenker may have had some personal flaws, but it’s quite a stretch to call him a racist.]

      Have you tried reading him in German, rather than in sanitized translations?

      I have. Schenker was a racist.

      But I actually don’t much care about that. He was the product of a racist culture.

      The racial problem with Schenkerism isn’t Schenker; the racial problem with Schenkerism is current Schenkerians.

      And, for me, the racism is only one of the problems with Schenkerism; the other important problem is that Schenkerians are charlatans and gaslighters.

      [Because he was Jewish, some of his contemporaries never made him part of their in-crowd.]

      He was part of the in-crowd among Viennese Jews. They were his students, and he lived off what they paid him.

      [His wife was murdered by the Nazis.]

      This statement, from a legal standpoint, is factually false.
      Nazis murdered Schenker’s widow.
      But Schenkerians have taught you to use the insinuation that Schenker suffered from her murder in order to promote sympathy for Schenker.
      Schenker’s widow died in a holocaust that Schenker, himself, did more to encourage than to discourage.

      [Schenker and others of his generation may have been convinced that music from their part of the world was superior to all other music.]

      And what about current generation of Americans? Why should they also think this?

      [While this attitude was unfortunate, the vast quantity of great music produced there can never be dismissed.]

      The effort is not to dismiss that music, but to put it in proper context.

      American music academia treats Brahms as more foundational to American music than William Billings.
      This is because Lowell Mason’s organization actively eradicated American classical music and replaced it with Germanic music.
      This version of events is not disputed among historians.
      I see the Schenkerians as essentially continuing the work of Lowell Mason and Fritz Von Frantzius.
      If what they’re doing is really any different, they have yet to show how it is different.

      [Abraham Lincoln… FDR …Martin Luther King Jr. … Laura Bush … Tchaikovsky…We can point out the shortcomings of these five people, but it’s unfair to remember them only for their shortcomings.]

      The principle you seem to be trying to apply is Di Mortuis Nil Nisi Bonum.
      Why do you have Laura Bush in there? Was her act intentional? Is she deceased or otherwise lacking opportunity to justify her action?

      [Let’s hope Timothy Jackson’s efforts are successful.]

      You seem a little bit confused.

      Jackson isn’t suing to make the case that Schenker’s racism is excusable.

      Jackson is suing to make they case that Jackson’s racism doesn’t exist,
      and that the accusations of racism against him explain why he lost his editorial position.

      But Jackson didn’t lose his position because either he or Schenker is accused of racism;
      Jackson lost his position because he didn’t do what the position legally required him to do.

  • K says:

    It won’t matter but I’m not really interested. For the record, I denounce bigotry, I denounce white supremacy, I denounce anti-Semitism, Trump is an idiot and anyone following him is being taken for their money – literally.
    That being said – and here’s where right-wing whackos can’t exercise rational thought – Ewell’s argument (Schenker should be disavowed) is throwing the baby out with the bath water. It’s analogous to a hysterical conservative having a good idea (hardly happens but go with it); if it’s something that is of benefit, it needs to be considered.

    So, all you treasonous traitors, if, while you’re serving your prison sentence, you come up with a good theory about something – – like the elemental forces at work in a music composition – – I for one will give it a look.

    • Hayne says:

      “For the record, I denounce bigotry, I denounce white supremacy, blah, blah, blah. It doesn’t matter what you pontificate. You support Professor Jackson, therefore you are a racist.
      Just being consistent with the left. How does it feel being labeled?

      • K says:

        Hayne-

        “Trump is an idiot and anyone following him is being taken for their money – literally.” You.

        “…here’s where right-wing whackos can’t exercise rational thought…” You.

        “…treasonous traitors, if, while you’re serving your prison sentence…” You.

        You’ll be happy about this. You don’t have the intellectual rigor for someone to waste their time appealing to some sense of reality that you can’t seem to occupy. Good bye. Enjoy the popcorn in the new Putin theater. Red hats required.

    • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

      That’s the Schenkerian straw man. Ewell has taught Schenker and so far has made no clear statement that he does not intend to continue teaching Schenker. His stated problem with Schenkerians is more to do with concealing the racism attached both with Schenkerian history and with current Schenkerian practice. Granted, in him most recent video, it does sound slightly like he has begun to come around to my own way of thinking; that the racism is not merely attached to Schenkerism; that the racism is the main point of the thing as currently practiced. The simple measure of this is to look at any other practical thing for which Schenkerism is being used on more than a token or experimental basis. After 50 years in musical academia, the utility is less musical than racial-political.

  • Gustav Mahler says:

    Philip Ewell is a tragic hero of the socalled political correctness movement which very often is based on a bunch of complete misunderstandings – something that should not be accepted at all in the academic world.

    Calling someone like Timothy Jackson a racist who defends Heinrich Schenker is completely absurd and it is even more absurd to sue him at a University. If they lost their minds, comparing apples and oranges, they should close the University and make it a High School.

    Heinrich Schenker, like many others, was a assimilated Jew. They loved German culture and especially German classical music (which is based in many ways on Christianity) and they were patriotic, maybe nationalist in some cases. In Vienna many oft them loved even Richard Wagner’s music (e.g. Gustav Mahler).

    Yes, Schenker praised Hitler in the beginning (because he thought that Hitler will raise the German culture), but I’m sure he would have learned his lesson very soon about this barbarism. The Nazis hated Schenker, his wife was murdered in Theresienstadt and they would have murdered him as well, if he would not have died already in 1935.

    So a professor who defends a jewish professor because he loved western classical music is a racist? Maybe Philip Ewell himself is a racist, who hates white people and their culture…

    • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

      [misunderstandings – something that should not be accepted at all in the academic world.]

      Schenkerism, itself, is built up from misunderstandings at its most basic level.

      But you don’t care about that, do you?

      [Calling someone like Timothy Jackson a racist who defends Heinrich Schenker]

      That’s not all that Jackson did, and that’s not why Jackson lost his position, which is what Jackson is suing people for.

      [is completely absurd and it is even more absurd to sue him at a University.]

      Nobody is suing Jackson. Not yet.

      After I have published my anthropology paper demonstrating that Schenkerians qualify as Tribal Magicians for reading the minds of deceased persons (and more),
      I intend to use the academic reception to that paper as evidence in a legal effort to remove Schenkerism from public institutions as a form of cryptotheology.

      But that’s a few years off.

      [If they lost their minds, comparing apples and oranges, they should close the University and make it a High School.]

      I don’t necessarily disagree with this.
      A university that didn’t properly investigate Schenkerism before allowing Schenkerians to set up a research center has something wrong with it.
      OTOH: “Texas” (shrug).

      [Heinrich Schenker, like many others, was a assimilated Jew. They loved German culture and especially German classical music (which is based in many ways on Christianity) and they were patriotic, maybe nationalist in some cases. In Vienna many oft them loved even Richard Wagner’s music (e.g. Gustav Mahler).]

      Wow, this is really helpful for understanding that, despite actually confessing to improper editorial procedure with the JSS, Jackson actually did everything right.
      How did I not see this before?

      [Yes, Schenker praised Hitler in the beginning (because he thought that Hitler will raise the German culture), but I’m sure he would have learned his lesson very soon about this barbarism.]

      Not very quickly.
      He wanted Hitler to “similarly eradicate” people whose music he didn’t enjoy, after Hitler had eradicated Marxists.
      https://schenkerdocumentsonline.org/search/?fq=all&kw=ausrottet

      [The Nazis hated Schenker,]

      No, the Nazis hated millions of people, and Schenker was incidentally one of them.

      [his wife was murdered in Theresienstadt]

      No, his widow was murdered. Schenker suffered nothing from it.

      [and they would have murdered him as well, if he would not have died already in 1935.]

      This is an inconclusive inchoate accusation against persons not alive to defend themselves against it.

      Also, it has nothing to do with the editorial misconduct mentioned in the report that cost Jackson his position.

      [So a professor who defends a jewish professor because he loved western classical music is a racist?]

      Irrelevant. Being or not being a racist is not license to editorial misconduct.

      [Maybe Philip Ewell himself is a racist, who hates white people and their culture…]

      It’s irrelevant to the Nth degree.
      Ewell isn’t the editorial head of an acadmic journal.
      Jackson isn’t suing Ewell and Ewell isn’t suing Jackson.
      Ewell also didn’t accuse Jackson of the editorial misconduct that cost Jackson his position.

      Also, nothing in Ewell’s career would indicate that he hates white culture or white music.

      But maybe you can at least shift the burden in readers’ minds if they need an excuse not to let themselves properly understand this case.

      To me, it seems like your’e just The Pot calling The Kettle a N*gger.

  • Herbie G says:

    How fascinating. That’s new to me. You say “Always be objective. Watch out for hasty generalizations. Look carefully at all viewpoints. Avoid ad hominem attacks. Make sure there’s plenty of solid evidence to support your conclusion.”
    With that in mind, let’s have a list of all the anti-Semitic comments that Tchaikovsky made – each one with the ‘solid evidence’ that you advocate. I understand that he had Jewish friends – Nikolay Rubinstein, Herman Laroche and maybe the cellist Davydov. As you do point out, even if this allegation were true, he was a superb composer regardless of such matters; the same could be said of the undoubted rabid anti-Semite – Wagner.

    You say ‘Abraham Lincoln talked about sending freed slaves back to Africa.’ Maybe so – again let’s have the ‘solid evidence’ from you, including the full context. If so, surely he was a racist then, and all his statues must be torn down. Funny that, because I remember being told that this out-and-out racist freed the slaves – but maybe that’s just received wisdom and we ought to revise the facts to enhance BLM’s hit list – what a prestigious scalp that would be.
    As for sending freed slaves back to Africa, the USA founded Liberia in the 1820s in order that they and other Afro-Americans could govern themselves and live in freedom and prosperity – and as many of the Afro-Americans had been kidnapped from Africa in the first place, it would make sense to allow them to return there at their own free will. Lincoln’s idea was quite natural as an effort to right wrongs. For you to claim that this was a ‘shortcoming’ of his, for which he should be forgiven, is just plain nonsense.

    The real issue here is that a professor has been sacked for defending a musicologist who was being traduced for being racist – without any credible trace of his being one. This is no different from the Third Reich, in which to have someone dismissed, sent to the Concentration Camps and murdered, all one needed to do was denounce them to the Gestapo as opponents of Hitler. This whole nonsense about Schenker and the denunciation of Professor Ewell is no different from that and the nauseating show trials in communist Russia and China. The people behind this sinister nonsense are political activists trying to shut down free debate, which is the root and branch of academic discourse, to impose ‘correct thinking’ and to penalise those who commit ‘thoughtcrime’. I am astonished that any sane person can support or justify such claptrap. Those who do tell us more about themselves than about the pseudo-intellectual drivel that they support.

  • IP says:

    I don’t know for how long it will be safe to listen to Beethoven CDs at home. . .

  • This whole situation is ridiculous. A large group of European music theorists have signed a letter calling upon UNT and the Schenker community to stop fighting and have an actual discussion about the racial perspectives of Schenker. They note that the European community has long addressed the issue of Schenker and racism. Time for both sides to stop this destructive fight and have a good scholarly discussion. Who’s going to lead the way back to sanity? Now’s the time to step forward.

    https://heinrichschenker.wordpress.com/open-letter-on-schenkers-racism-and-its-reception-in-the-united-states/

    • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

      Europeans don’t seem to understand that without the racist utilities, Schenkerism basically has no important utilities for Americans. They’re wasting their effort by trying to reason with Americans on this.

  • He was removed as editor of a music theory journal.

    I’m reminded of the Henry Kissinger quote, “The arguments among academics are so intense, precisely because the stakes are so small.”

    • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

      It’s pretty bad for his academic career. But just wait. What he’s doing now to try to fix it is even worse. He just stopped being the guy who lost his editorial position by not doing his editorial job and just started being the guy who sued the people who held him accountable for not doing his job, but sued them for something totally irrelevant to that. He doesn’t appreciate how light he got off for abusing his editorial authority. He’s like someone who would spend his whole lottery jackpot on lottery tickets.

  • caranome says:

    Quoted from excellent article: https://www.unz.com/article/triggered-by-beethoven-the-cultural-politics-of-racial-resentment/

    “Classical music, like other aspects of Western culture, has been a casualty of the anti-White diversity mania that now infests Western intellectual life. The Cultural Marxist critique of classical music (and of Beethoven) wallows in bad faith arguments and cognitive dissonance: Western classical music is nothing exceptional, yet cannot be invoked to praise White people because this necessarily implies the inferiority of other races; a White supremacist conspiracy thwarts Black and Brown achievement in the genre, but utterly fails to prevent East Asian interest and success; Black composers have written symphonies (and, indeed, Beethoven himself was Black), yet the Western classical music tradition is inherently White supremacist and needs radical deconstruction.”

    • K says:

      caranome

      “Ron Keeva Unz (born September 20, 1961) is the editor-in-chief and publisher of The Unz Review, a website that promotes anti-semitism, Holocaust denial, conspiracy theories, and white supremacist material.[1][2][3] In addition to Unz’s own writings, the site has hosted pieces by white supremacist Jared Taylor, among others.”

      All we need to know. The print edition is very good for lining your birdcage.

      • Gerald Martin says:

        And yet if one can navigate past the vile political content the UNZ website has a valuable archive of diverse American magazines. I find particularly interesting the back issues of Saturday Review and its classical record reviews, written by notable critics of the time such as Irving Kolodin.

        I have no explanation for the weird disconnect.

        • K says:

          Gerald-

          I see the disconnect in two possible scenarios. First, if the content in non-political it can be safely be included because no one from either side can claim it as for or against a particular issue. Second, and more cynically, it is included because it acts as a diversion and gives potential brownie points for letting the site not just be about exterminating Jews in concentration camps. This little bit of theater pops up elsewhere in other media platforms. Does the owner/author of the site have a genuine interest in music, per this case? Maybe. But for me, subjectively, that possibility doesn’t negate the underlying theme of the site, to repeat, “…a website that promotes anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, conspiracy theories, and white supremacist material.”

  • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

    If the article is correct in stating that the point of contention is Jackson losing his editorial position, that wasn’t because of the racism charge. That was because Jackson failed to do what the position demanded of him editorially. That’s what the report concluded, which caused him to lose his position. Did he in fact diverge from what was required? To a civil standard of “yes”, the answer is “yes”. How can I say this? I can say this because after 1:06:00 in this video, Jackson offers a functional confession to the very charges he is supposedly trying to use the video to deny, all while his attorney sits there and does nothing to stop him from confessing. Really? Yeah. Just watch. This is a kind of stupidity that one can almost spread with a shovel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BYEmzYAMok

  • Joshua Clement Broyles says:

    A statement that tries to make the case that no black person is ever qualified to criticize any Jewish person is an anti-black statement.

    Jackon’s paragraph in Vol. 12 beginning with “Ewell’s scapegoating of Schenker…” and ending with “…obnoxious lyrics of some hip hop songs, etc.” serves no purpose other than to try to disqualify Ewell from criticizing Schenker, not on the basis of historical information, but merely on the basis of Ewell’s race (black) and Schenker’s historical “race”(Jewish); it is a statement that tries to make the case that no black person is ever qualified to criticize any Jewish person.

    It is an anti-black statement.

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dTOWwlIsuiwsgAa4f1N99AlvG3-ngnmG/view

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