Anglo is now a dirty word in US opera
OperaHere’s a groveling public apology from the incoming chief of New Orleans Opera, Lila Palmer.
On Thursday morning, I was announced as the incoming General & Artistic Director of New Orleans Opera. In the announcement, I was described as Anglo-American: someone who is both English and American. As someone raised in England with an American parent, this is how I describe myself in England not understanding how hurtful it would be in a different environment. As the incoming leader of a cultural institution of a majority-Black city in America, it was a huge misstep.
The ensuing discussions have been a stark reminder that intent does not equal impact. In a city like New Orleans, the word ‘Anglo’ causes visceral reactions, conjuring the generational trauma of white supremacy and racial reckoning. This was a blindspot – and a humbling lesson to have learned in the public eye.
I sincerely apologize for the harm that was caused by this word choice. And while this is certainly not how I hoped my tenure would begin, I will do my utmost to earn your trust through my actions.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this important discussion. I hear you, and I will continue to listen. As we move forward, NOOA will host an open conversation in New Orleans. I hope to learn from New Orleanians about issues that matter to them, and how NOOA can best serve the community we’re very proud to be a part of.
Lila Palmer
Not a great way to begin.
I’m an Anglo by the way. Proud of it.
OMG
“In a city like New Orleans, the word ‘Anglo’ causes visceral reactions”
Obviously the French are behind this campaign:
To reclaim La Nouvelle-Orléans, restore le français as the official language, reconquer all the territory sold by Napoléon from la Louisiane through le Kansas and le Wyoming all the way to le Montana.
How you English say, I one more time-a unclog my nose in your direction, sons of a window-dresser! So, you think you could out-clever us French folk with your silly knees-bent running about in dancing behavior! I wave my private parts at your aunties, you cheesy lot of second hand electric donkey bottom biters.
I have no words…and clearly neither do you.
This is just so utterly cringeworthy…it’s beyond painful. We’re through the looking-glass, people.
Apologizing to leftists only makes them more irrationally angry. It will never be enough, and there will be no forgiveness because they are really upset that she is not a person of color rather than the fact that she used a perfectly innocuous word. They will use this sign of weakness to start a campaign to oust her.
Apparently Anglo-Saxon History has the same issue in American academia. (I’m not so bothered about the use of Old English for the Anglo-Saxon _language_. The term “Old English” has a very long history and is probably a better description, especially as it parallels the use of “Middle English” and “Modern English”.)
From what I’ve read about New Orleans, the presence of Anglos, or Saxons, or Jutes, might be the least of their worries.
Is this for real? How is she going to describe herself? English American?
Oppressor-American, probably.
Grovel harder! (But she can’t really grovel enough these days). Better yet, resign immediately. (But she can’t resign fast enough these days).
I’m Anglo-American. Until today, I had no idea that was considered offensive by some. Still don’t know why and don’t particularly care.
At what point does a person drop the nationalist nonsense? I’m an American…I’m not a German-American, although by the general consensus I could use that description.
The offensive part is thinking that anyone would care.
I feel for the “Black majority” that must be feeling SO hurt today.
The grievance industry demands that oppressed communities remain forever vigilant in their search for outrage, so no doubt many were harmed in the making of this latest crisis.
Although I’d be more worried about their choice of repertoire – (from the website)
CONTENT ADVISORY: LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR CONTAINS MATURE THEMES, INCLUDING MENTAL ILLNESS, A FORCED MARRIAGE, AN OFFSTAGE MURDER, AND SUICIDE.
I’m more concerned about the trigger warning, Lucia being a favourite of mine.
It’s only appropriate to have trigger warnings in New Orleans. It has the third-highest murder rate in the United States.
Only third place?
when did people singing in another language in a show with a ridiculous plot become triggering? Isn’t the need to infantilize an older and somewhat sophisticated audience going to backfire at some point?
Let’s face it, the Yanks have completely lost the plot. That wouldn’t be so bad, but they’re forcing us to, too.
Once again, I understand every word but not in that order. Could someone explain this in lucid and coherent English?
She’s a librettist. It’s called free verse.
Oh Norman…that last addition is Melanie Philips quality stuff
Melanie Philips may be British, but she’s not English. LOL
To atone for her sins, this utterly blind and hypocritical Anglo needs to dialogue with the National Council of Negro Women, and make a contribution to the United Negro College Fund.
And the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
“In a city like New Orleans, the word ‘Anglo’ causes visceral reactions, conjuring the generational trauma of white supremacy and racial reckoning.”
Really?
And it seems very strange to suggest that the population aren’t capable of thinking, “Oh dear, an unfortunate word to use, but still, she’s new here and is actually from England, so there’s nothing to get worked uop about here.”
I do not normally see the excesses of wokery and the healthy and much-criticised resistance to them as strictly a right-left political divide, however the majorities of each fall.
I tend to skew left but am vehemently anti-woke, as all I see in it is cultural destruction and denial. I am all for equal opportunities for people, regardless of race, sex,sexual identity, etc. I am not for cancel culture, identity politics, sexual self-identification that involves children before they are old enough to discern youthful angst from genuine sexual dysphoria.
I find language nonsense very offensive, though I use that word with reluctance, if accuracy, because I detest the culture of being offended. I am a grammar purist because since childhood a false word always pulls me up short if it obscures meaning and causes me to lose the flow of an article or book. Now every time I read “they” of someone who is an individual I go back to see what I must have missed (reference to someone else I must have skimmed over).
And while I feel very positively about respectful reference to others — since youth I have never used, and always objected to, short forms of “Japanese” or “Pakistani,” among other short forms that are usually implicitly if not explicitly derogatory — and equally respect the right of African-Americans to their own preferred term of reference, I resist the right of others to remove that right from me. I seriously doubt that the majority of black citizens of New Orleans would have given a toss about this lady’s reference to herself in the clear and identifying term “Anglo-American.”
However, I am equally concerned that the aggressive wokies have persuaded her that she has committed a mortal sin, and that she has put her name to this grovelling statement. This is one place where the “non-apology apology” would have been appropriate, in a line or two: “I regret that some may have found my self-identification not to their taste. I am new to this city, and will be open to hearing all views as I enter the community and learn more about the cultural responses of those with whom the NOOA plans to engage.”
What is she supposed to do — identify her parents and their birthplaces every time she introduces herself? None of their bloody business. It’s accurate, it’s brief, it is, to all but the feeblest mentalities, self-explanatory.
What if she were French, with similarly split parentage? Would the delicate souls of New Orleans resist Franco-American? What’s the crime here — being English? FCS.
There’s no real offense in the city. It’s all about control, and the sport of seeing how high a White person can be made to jump.
There is a baleful tendency to regard certain words as wicked ( and the person who utters them as evil) no matter the context in which they appear or the history and intent of the person who uses them. This tendency issues, for instance, in the silly notion that a policeman is swearing if he gives evidence to the court: “..and I heard him say, ‘I’ll fucking murder you.'”
“What’s the crime here — being English?”
Please understand: in the United States the prefix anglo- does not mean English as a nationality. It means non-Hispanic White. In New Orleans where the hispanic population is a small percentage, that makes it just White.
‘British-American’ would have avoided the potentially racist implication.
Thanks for the explanation. But I’m still bemused as to the source of the offence.
So it means non-Hispanic white. So what? She IS non-Hispanic white.
What are these people annoyed by? It’s descriptive, that’s all. But if ‘murricans prefer British-American, fine. But I would like to know who exacted that ridiculous knee-bending statement from her.
It is always hard to understand the sensitivities of other people. Imagine if somebody just taking over a large organization in a city with a majority Jewish population chose to call themselves Aryan? Something like that (but not as extreme).
I don’t see how her apology is ‘ridiculous’ or ‘grovelling’. She has learnt that the term is disquieting to people in New Orleans and regrets the mis-step.
How utterly ridiculous that the world has come to this.
You seem to have a much more acute perspective on life from the back row of the 2nd violins than most people.
I enjoyed your comment.
This is just outrageously ridiculous.
Carefully y’all don’t choke on all the wokness
Grotesque. Being forced to apologise in public simply for being who you are, by powerful, aggressive people who haven’t even taken the time to understand your culture and the ways in which it differs from theirs – isn’t there a word for this?
Therefore, African-American is offensive to me in my majority white city. Alternative theory, the plebs in nawlins just don’t speak English so good and can’t understand simple descriptive prefixes. Either way: 100% retarded.
Absolutely ridiculous. The assault on the dictionary continues.
Unlikely this “apology “ will change the demographics of the opera goers in the city.
Over the top. She knows what Anglo-American means. Same as it means to any literate American. Her “victims” should apologize to her for Anglo-shaming her. Are, say, Lady Lawrence and Sir Willard White allowed to say they’re English?
The wolf pack smelled blood. Self-inflicted. She offered it herself.
The point here is not the term, which has never meant anything but “English.” It’s that the code-words will always shift, because their purpose is to keep English or English-related folks off-center, uncertain, embarrassed, and penitent. Once “Anglo” is eliminated from everyone’s vocabulary, the next offensive signifier will be found so that the process can continue.
I live in Canada and there are many times when people casually identify the subjects of a conversation as “Anglos” or “Francos.” It is informational. “Anglos” in this context includes people like me — I am Scottish — and people born in Canada of whatever (white, usually European) origin IF the point is to indicate that French, an official language if this country, is not their first language.
Black Canadians may be called just that, though they may be called “Anglos” if the conversation is specifically ABOUT language. First Nations people are always referred to as that.
In certain part of the United States, ‘anglo’ is what lawyers call a ‘term of art’, i.e. a word that has a specific meaning beyond what might be assumed.
When I visited Santa Fe some years ago, I found an incredibly diverse local population, with people of Mexican and Native American heritage outnumbering white people. All white people were referred to as ‘anglo’, as is the case in many parts of the Western United States. As a Jewish visitor from New York, I found this somewhat cringeworthy, and a bit amusing. I find the statement by the New Orleans opera administrator equally cringeworthy, but there is an added meaning here that may be lost on some readers.
Yes, exactly! People who aren’t from here (US) may not appreciate the nuances of language we use. “Anglo-American” is ambiguous, tending to mean either of an English-speaking country or of English or British heritage, and the term really isn’t in common use here. The more common term for someone born in England but naturalized an American is “British-American.” Plus, as noted here, “Anglo” is VERY commonly understood to mean “not Hispanic,” especially in the Southwest (anywhere from California to Texas).
Hang on. So it’s okay for Hispanics to use the word of non-Hispanic whites but not for an n-H-w to use it of him- or herself? Isn’t that the opposite of the rules in referring to blacks?
Is it deemed a racist word when Hispanics use it? Or just as a word as Ms. Palmer used it, descriptive?
What would have been a *non*-“harmful” way to describe herself, I wonder?
The mob prefers “Dead”.
How about simply by her professional appellation, without reference to ethnicity, race, or country of origin? None of those other descriptives will help her do the job.
Sure. Can all other employees and appointees do the same?
I agree…..’Anglo’ still has significant echoes and connotations of corporate high seas traders of yesteryear, shipping human cargo and ruling the waves etc. There are better ways of describing ourselves to others and in view of an appalling imperial history, many in New Orleans would not need to trace back many generations to learn of the despicable indignities inflicted upon them by ‘Anglo’ cartels of traders. Let’s listen in this instance, accept correction and move on.
Ánglo’ is NOT a term carrying political or historical meaning, it is a simple indication of British background and culture which consists of a ltitle bit more than slavery and colonialisation.
Mr Borstlap, you should know that IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA “Anglo-” does carry political and historical meaning, and it does not refer specifically to English or British heritage.
Lila Palmer is very qualified both as an administrator and creative person. The board of the opera should speak up in support of Lila and give her the support she needs to plan the seasons and raise the funding necessary and not be distracted by petty and unhelpful comments.
Perhaps I misread the previous post, but the criticism was not of how Ms. Palmer described her heritage or country where she was raised (by an American parent) and educated, but rather questions as to her basic suitability to the job of general manager of an opera company, small as New Orleans is.
In her own biography, there is only one paragraph that remotely sounds as if she has administrative/production achievements. “An accomplished producer, Lila has led expanded arts programming in non-traditional and heritage spaces, producing and co-producing operas and enrichment and activation events with The Museum of London, The London Transport Museum, Trebah Gardens, and the Bethlem Gallery and Trust.” She may be a talented librettist, but the rest is rather a stretch.
Good job of obfuscating though. Thumbs up.
Why does she not just resign if she feels so guilty about running an opera house in a majority black city? Idiot!
The above is a simply disqualifying apology that will go down in infamy.
As Victor Meldrew would have said – “I don’t believe it”!
“In the name of sanity…”
Oh, for God’s sake…
I’m deeply shocked that Norman is English, thinking back to the wars that England and the Dutch Republic have fought in the 18th century, the pain of which is still felt throughout the Dutch populace including immigrants who have done their best to fully integrate.
well that’s some vapid and self indulgent virtue signaling.
This is not news in New Orleans right now. Mardi gras, jazz and zydeco get the focus in this market.
https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/music/
American Opera’s death by a million papercuts continues.
Welcome to NOLA. It is what it is. An opera company is rather insignificant amidst Mardi Gras and jazz.
And (American) football.
Which is the real Lila Palmer? Is there a real Lila Palmer? There’s Lila Palmer as Woke Flagellant, with her ridiculous self-abasement – I may be wrong but I’ve reasons for thinking it’s carefully calculated, not sincere. The Lila Palmer Website gives a different Lila Palmer, with so many pretentious claims, so much pretentious crap: ‘She specializes in centering intersectional female perspectives.’ ‘I have deep pedagogical knowledge of the mechanical [mechanical?] functions of the composer’s great ally – the singer … ‘ She claims that she’s a librettist with rare powers, powers denied to composers, in fact – she claims that she reveals and obtains ‘the good stuff, the story the composer didn’t know they needed to tell.’
Then there’s the very different Lila Palmer who is an old Bradfordian and featured on the Website of Bradford Grammar School. In the article, there’s not a trace of the Lila Palmer who denounces the ‘Anglo.’ From the Bradfordian article: ‘Anglo-American Lila Palmer has been bouncing back and forth between North America and the UK her whole life … in fact, the pandemic has been the first time she’s not been back in England at least every six months.’ This is a Yorkshire lass who emphasizes her Yorkshire roots: ‘It’s the Betty’s withdrawal and family still settled in the Dales that bring me back.’ ‘Betty’s is a reference to ‘Betty’s tea rooms.’ It’s not made clear if it’s the Betty’s in York or the Betty’s in Harrogate or one of the other Betty’s tea rooms in Yorkshire.
The stuff she writes is a form of ‘English’ but what would she call it? A suggestion to woke people who use the language called ‘English.’ Consider calling your form of English ‘Wokeish.’ Lila Palmer writes in Wokeish, or a mixture of English and Wokeish. The history of English includes a history of Anglo-Saxon contributions, of course. Anglo-Saxon is embedded in English. I think Wokeish speakers might well find that not to their liking.
Did you ever see a lassie,
A lassie, a lassie?
Did you ever see a lassie,
Go this way and that?
Go this way and that way,
Go this way and that way.
Did you ever see a lassie,
Go this way and that?
Or the Bettys in Ilkley … all of which do not use an apostrophe. It is not Betty’s! It is also a Swiss company that happens to be in North and West Yorkshire!
I was glad to read your unexpected and very welcome comment, Maria. You’re completely right – I find that there’s no apostrophe. Bettys it is. I checked the Bradfordian Website which was my source of information. The tea shop is named in a quotation from Lila Palmer and includes the apostrophe, wrongly. I could have checked the information before using it but although thoroughness and attention to detail are important to me, there are limits, of course. An apostrophe would be expected in that use of the word. You’re right too about the Swiss connection. Bettys offers Rösti, I find, but I’m glad to find that Wensleydale cheese is offered alongside some Swiss cheese. Bettys has yet to cross the border into South Yorkshire where I live. I would think that a Barnsley Bettys would have a hard time but many of the urban sophisticates in Sheffield would welcome a branch, I’m sure. I’m not an urban sophisticate myself.
For those outside of America who may be absolutely befuddled what all of this is about, in America, the word “Anglo” has a secondary, looser definition divorced from its literal meaning to denote something or someone related to the country of England. In America, it is used as a synonym for “white” or “whiteness” in general, regardless of nation of origin. It is a **racial** term in America, not a national one. The average person in America does not use it to mean “of or relating to England”, which is how Ms. Palmer was using it, as she is English-born.
It was certainly awkward and rather careless of New Orleans Opera to not remember this when publishing the press release, but I also hope that all the people who are upset will take a moment to have the grace to understand what the term literally means, and that that was how she was using it.
The average person in America relates “Anglo” the way it’s supposed to be used. Let’s not talk about below average level.
Anglo in the US is only used to differentiate from Latino.
That may well be, but the grovelling apology she has been compelled to issue is scarily similar to the kind seen under Stalinism. I lean left, but this stuff is simply sickening.
British born with an American mother. She’s plain British, not even English, and not an Anglo-American
Horseshit.
It is not “horseshit” in the US, where local and regional culture is important to the citizenry.
Nick is correct from a US perspective.
(Sad you need to stoop to vulgarisms when there are vocabulary builders available.)
The most interesting thing to me is that the Opera’s PR company (or department) which should have caught this, informed her, and corrected it, simply gave her enough rope to hang herself. With in house support like that I don’t expect her to last long in the position.
The history of Louisiana in general and New Orleans in particular has led to the term ‘Anglo-American’ having negative connotations that the readership of Slipped Disc may not be familiar with. The New Orleans Opera Association should have been more sensitive to the community it serves.
Anglo-American is used by Latinos, not by the large and historic black population of New Orleans, nearly 60 per cent strong.
I bet it was just one complaint.
Probably someone on her board.
Does she realize that very few people care about how she describes herself?
On another tack, have there been any librettists since Schickaneder who have directed opera companies?
I believe Da Ponte at the age of 84 founded the Italian Opera House in New York City. It failed after two seasons.
Definition of Anglo: “A white inhabitant of the United States who is not of Latin extraction”.
No connection with England.
You can see why it was misunderstood in New Orleans.
Exactly, no connection with England. In the UK, one is overall British, and then Scottish, Welsh or from Northern Ireland, or Irish. Not some Anglo-American!
One can be overall British *and* English. Whichever you care to use of yourself in the first instance can depend on a vareiety of factors. Moreover, one might use “Anglo” when speaking of historical events that preceded the Act of Union in 1707, e.g. “the Anglo-Dutch wars of the 17th centuiry”.
In some contexts it’s regarded as ever so phobic not to refer to people by the terms they prefer to use of themselves. So I guess it’s phobic in one way or another to protest about Ms Palmer’s way of describing herself.
Bulgakov: “…the grovelling apology she has been compelled to issue is scarily similar to the kind seen under Stalinism. I lean left, but this stuff is simply sickening.”
—-
George Orwell’s 1984 or Animal Farm also comes to mind.
Or Mao Zeodung and his Cultural Revolution in 1960’s-70’s China.
Various people, however, never realize that “lean left” may too easily be exactly what the road to hell is known to be paved with.
Quite recently American/Chinese composer Bright Sheng, lecturing at Michigan University, was almost cancelled for having shown a sixties video of Otello in class with the main role in ‘blackface’. He was thrown-back to the Chinese ‘cultural revolution’ in the land of the free – had to make grave apologies. Fortunately he was restored in his position (due to loud protests in the music community), but it is not hard to imagine the shock such absurdities can invoke.
Another example of well-meant lefties kafka is the Dutch subsidy system for new music, with grants and commission fees, where ‘selection comitees’ ‘guard artistic quality’ of which the members ‘coincidentally’ know exactly the aesthetic standards.
Cultural sensitivity means, among other things, that a person has the right to refer to their own identity using terminology of their choice, that make sense to them in the context of their own cultural background; and that it’s incumbent upon others to educate themselves as to the meaning of that terminology to the person using it.
However in this case it appears the demand on Ms. Palmer was that she should know that the term “Anglo” is commonly used, in other communities, as a slur against people like herself, and therefore, paradoxically, using it herself would cause offense to those who normally use it as a slur.
And why do I say it’s a slur? Because, if I’m using a term to refer to another ethnic group, but I cannot imagine or countenance a member of that group using the same term to refer to themself in a positive, or even neutral sense, then the term is a slur, as I’m using it.
And for the few of us who know her, she’s not the brightest spark; hence she’s running a tiny company in New Orleans…. not exactly a famed world opera house. They patted themselves on the back for getting a female leader in this days of anti-white-male leadership: they never dreamed she might also have some lacking, if not toxic issues. Woke-ism shooting itself in the ear. Or is it eye? They/them/her will have to tell us one day. Next.
Shooting itself in the six, as they say on the Navy.
Anglo? Surely a British-American if you have to use such clumsy nationality labels! Or British of American parentage. But Anglo? Sounds like a double-glazing company in England!
The issue is that she is identifying as an English speaker from England. For those who are insensitive to the many politics of the UK, or British Isles, she is not claiming heritage from the Celts or the Welsh. (Apologies if I named any of the above incorrectly. I am not of Scottish, English or Irish Heritage, nor do I hold a British passport. It all is rather complicated. Shame on those who don’t understand that being white and speaking English doesn’t have another meaning of identity outside of the USA). Her distinction is 100% appropriate. The offence is caused by people who are too small to see the world beyond American borders.
I see a silver lining in the fracas caused by Lila Palmer. The New Orleans Opera should be pressured to stage many performances of my 2nd favorite opera, Gershwin’s masterpiece Porgy and Bess, as penance. The Gershwin estate still owns the copyright and requires an all black cast.
Can we all be just “Americans”?
She isn’t “just American.”
I read her apology. And I understand people are so sensitive and easily offended these days……but I honestly have no idea why that word would be considered to be offensive. Does anyone know?
Please read and pay attention.
Wow, why the condescension…..? I did read it. To say a word causes trauma is not an explanation especially when the word has been in common usage forever without controversy. And if the Anglo is now so offensive what word do you replace it with? Would an alternate word, which means the same thing be any less upsetting. But once again, I always wonder why people want to be nasty when hiding behind a keyboard. It was a sincere question…..not trolling. Have a good day.
Several commenters have attempted to explain why the term Anglo-American could be offensive in New Orleans. An acceptable and more accurate term is British-American.
Prefabricated nonsense from one of the wokerati. No apology needed from any Anglo. G
The apology needed is from her misguided personnae. We’ve all had enough of it.
These people are deranged.
Nobody is offended.
Nobody.
The manufactured outrage is simply a power move. Intelligent people understand that. Courageous people call it out. Weak people apologize for it.
A power move by whom?
Courageous people don’t call it out; they recognize what is important, they put on their big boy pants (or big girl leggings) and move forward. In other words, they rise above it.
Sad, grovelling and pathetic.
Her critics were idiots. Now, she is an idiot too.
She should not apologise and certainly not start with the comment about White privilege. There is no such thing. If she is not proud of who she is,she should not take up her new post
I suppose all those who critiqued her cultural identity would be horrified to know that their understanding of the statement, which was written in English, means they are ANGLOPHONES. A term which comes from the French who identify as Francophones. A detail one would expect the same critical audience in New Orleans to be aware. The term originated from the French.
Wow. Lot of racist comments here. Shocking
What a ridiculous country the US has become.
I really glad I have no plans to visit it again.
Hard not to feel like Norman is being deliberately insensitive to a cultural context they don’t at all understand with that last comment.