We aim to be London’s anti-racist conservatoire
NewsTrinity-Laban is struggling to deal with a controversial email by a jazz professor that inflamed feelings among minority students. It is now issuing assurances of student safety, but none whatsoever about protecting its staff and their freedom to teach.
Here’s the latest marshmallow from the embattled principal (pictured):
Dear students and colleagues,
Last Tuesday 19 March we met with a large group of you in the Laban Theatre because we needed to address a situation in which a member of our staff shared personal views that caused harm and offence to many of our students.
We would firstly like to thank all of you who attended and those of you who added your voice to this conversation via other means. These past weeks have been painful and upsetting, but they have also served as a catalyst for our community to hold each other to account. We have felt inspired by our students’ commitment to supporting each other and to ensuring that we hear your voices: you are what make us.
We must now move forward, together. We are sharing the minutes of the meeting for those who could not attend, they are attached, and include the answers to questions that were asked anonymously but not raised due to lack of time.
We want to acknowledge that while the situation was isolated in one music department, Jazz, it has provoked scrutiny of the whole of Trinity Laban, as well as causing shockwaves across other conservatoires and in the jazz sector as a whole. As we now respond to this situation through actions as well as the words we’ve exchanged we want to make it clear that we will focus on making change for the whole of Trinity Laban. This will include more meetings, and more opportunities for you to speak to us privately and anonymously about your experiences.
Our aspiration is to be an actively anti-racist conservatoire, and that means improving the experiences of black students and staff now.
If you have questions, experiences, feedback and concerns to share now, please contact your Director of Faculty.
With our best wishes,
Anthony Bowne, Principal (pictured)
Roger Wilson, TL Governor and Director of Black Lives in Music
Aleks Szram, Director of Music
Frances Clarke, Acting Director of Dance
Pamela Thompson, Head of People and Organisational Development
Hans Koller, Head of Jazz
Tessa Gillett, Head of Brand &c…
Here’s a further nugget from the meeting:
For those of us who have not seen the contents of the email sent from the individual, it would be helpful to clarify what content was offensive. The individual is being called racist. What was offensive and traumatic in the email?
We cannot detail what was said in the email. The legal process is important.
We need a clear understanding of offense, which is why awareness of micro-aggressions is important; to some people they may not seem that bad, but if someone interprets it as offensive then they need to feel supported.
The content of the email can be construed as racist. It is provocative and inflammatory, demonstrated by the number of people who have read it and have been suitably provoked by it.
There is also the issue of the power relationship between a teacher and a student being misused here.
As someone who has not read the email, is it racist or could is feel like a smear campaign? If someone is acting diabolically, then we should be able to talk about it with the individual.
For context, to understand why this is such a great issue, we must understand that Jazz music was created by black artists. It belongs to the African American community. We are blessed to be able to listen to this music and to teach it. This does not mean that we cannot play it, but we must respect where it came from. It was created by young people and the older musicians had to catch up with them and their changing music and views. This created a sense of community and togetherness. We need to reflect this in how we look after each other. This music is not about freedom of opinions, but rather about caring for each other.
Our role as musicians is to remember that a band works through its sharing of roles. It is not about one person in a position of power, singling people out.
“Jazz music was created by black artists. It belongs to the African American community.”
Therein lies the problem.
Who created classical music? Does it belong to only those communities?
Who created electric grids, trains, running water systems, agriculture, and whatever else benefits humanity? None of these belong to any one group of people.
Black genius created the beautiful language of jazz. And they shared their cultural treasures with the world.
If we applied the ‘cultural appropriation’ argument to western innovation, most of the world would be obliged to live in mud huts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7HmhrgTuQ
Shhh!
Louis Prima and quite a few other pioneers back then were white. So they’re wrong on even that one.
Good Lord. Can you for one millisecond imagine the founder of Chineke! writing something like this?
“For context, to understand why this is such a great issue, we must understand that classical music was created by white artists. It belongs to the European community. We are blessed to be able to listen to this music and to teach it. This does not mean that we cannot play it, but we must respect where it came from.”
“This music is not about freedom of opinions”.
That’s genuinely chilling. Comrade Zhdanov lives…
“We need a clear understanding of offense [sic], which is why awareness of micro-aggressions is important; to some people they may not seem that bad, but if someone interprets it as offensive then they need to feel supported.”
I have always felt this to be a very dodgy way of operating. I remember arguing the point with a Jewish friend — a long-standing and very intelligent friend. My view was that if someone intended no offence, but another took offence at some word or deed, then what we had was a misunderstanding, not something racist. He resisted that approach entirely.
As a young student I had invited another student, who had helped in the design of a play I had directed, to lunch as a bit of a thank you. I had no idea about her religion. I prepared a summer lunch of he sort routinely offered and accepted by the people I hung around with — sliced cold meats, some cheeses, some green salad, some bread, some fruit. They were laid out on various platters.
When she arrived, she took one look and picked a few grapes from one bowl, accepted a glass of water, and said she regretted not being hungry. As a student on a tight budget who had gone to some effort and expense, I was a little disappointed. But she was a nice young woman, we liked each other, and managed to pass a pleasant hour or two.
Mentioning it to a friend later, I was informed that my guest was Jewish and kept to a strict kosher diet. I’m afraid I did not even know what that was at the time, and my guest at no point in accepting my invitation had mentioned any dietary restriction. The point was: she was not “offended,” as she immediately realised I was unaware of her convictions, and I was not offended, as I accepted her explanation as to why she ate so little.
So I am not very persuaded, in a culture where people are actively seeking grounds for taking offence, that someone interpreting something as offensive makes it so. And educational institutions, which are meant to prepare their students not just in particular skills but in preparing for life in the real world, should be very open to hearing student grievances, but equally open to explaining that their thinking something does not necessarily make it so.
Nor am I persuaded that Martin Speake’s intentions were all malign, though I begin to suspect a resentment that some of his colleagues may be treated differently than others — is he wrong? His approach to that point may indeed have crossed the lines of tasteful discourse, and if it is deemed so by an OBJECTIVE investigation, so be it. But this principal’s communications do not seem to offer much interest in the reactions of anyone outside their black community.
What a lot might be achieved if people in authority realised that racism is not, in this day and age, a one-way street.
“My view was that if someone intended no offence, but another took offence at some word or deed, then what we had was a misunderstanding, not something racist.”
That, Mr Lind, is far too sensible for 2024.
In any case, such an approach would put an end to many very lucrative, but perhaps not very constructive, careers.
Oh, it’s turned into a growth industry. At a period when graduates have never read Hamlet and would not recognise a quotation from The Lord’s Prayer or a reference to the Magna Carta, they can apply their creativity to looking for offence in every breath drawn by a white person.
BTW, it’s “Ms.” Lind. No offence!
“I am not very persuaded…that someone interpreting something as offensive makes it so.”
Yes, indeed. A person’s feelings of offence can be grounded in misapprehension of the facts in the case or might be otherwise unreasonable.
For context, to understand why this is such a great issue, we must understand that Jazz music was created by black artists. It belongs to the African American community.
So, classical music belongs to us? Stupid argument.
A lot of absurd shit like this has been happening for a long time now…and the same people wonder why idiots on the other end of the spectrum (trump etc) gain that much traction…the pendulum…
Mr. Bowne, as an alumna I am deeply ashamed of your cowardice and blatant opportunism. Martin Speake did nothing wrong.
He expressed some opinions. Yes, he even dared to use the word “black” without kowtowing and kneeling hysterically, like during the horrid St. Floyd riots. Perhaps unartfully expressed, he asked for MERIT rather than skin color to motivate EVERYbody.
He “dared” to express views which even ten years ago would have been completely unremarkable, common sense even. Martin Speake, unlike you, is a musician, not a dime a dozen politico, using language as a weapon, like those who now feel entitled to sit in judgment of him.
Your duty was to NOT further inflame the childish students with your cowardly, enabling verbiage. Your duty was to facilitate a dialogue and keep the peace. Protect the students, when needed, which wasn’t the case here, but also offering your faculty member a chance of better explaining his point of view, not “canceling” him, Fascist-style.
Throwing your colleague of years under the first head-on bus was and is behavior reminiscent of the Red Guards and their adult enablers during Mao’s criminal-against-humanity “cultural revolution.” THIS will be your legacy. The ones crying “we are anti-racists” are the most racist of all.
Commnentors here comparing Jazz to Classical are wilfully ignoring the fact that Jazz music’s origins can be dated back to subjugated people (slaves and Black Americans living in Jim Crow era US), that history must be respected. Not to mention that Black people themselves were often not given the same opportunities or were even barred from playing Jazz as it’s popularity grew.
To now belittle the contributions Black artists have had on the UK Jazz scene (as Speake did in his email) is hateful and frankly ridculous. To conflate his own lack of career opportunities with the rise in prominence of certain Black artists is also absurd. Speake should be proud that a number of his past-students are thriving in their careers. Being a full time musician in today’s climate is hard for all involved. If he wants to blame anyone, he should speak to the Tory government that have cut arts funding systematically over the past 14 years, leading to less opportunities for all.
You’ve presumably seen the email in question in order to pass judgment on Mr Speake like this. Why don’t you do us all a favour and share some of its contents with us, so that we have a more informed discussion.
And as for “respecting the history” of jazz, how do you see that working out in practice? The last time I went to Australia, I had the opportunity to walk up the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the first thing that happened when we put on the safety gear was that the guide (from Mexico, natch) gave us some spiel about honouring the spirits of the aboriginal custodians of the land. Is that what you’d like to see any time a white person dares to engage in unforgivable cultural appropriation by attempting to play jazz – a little article of confession beforehand? And what about the thriving Japanese jazz scene? They never subjugated any Black people. Do they need to pay ritual obeisance too?
No one is suggesting that white people (or people of any race) cannot play Jazz, just that Black people should be given equal opportunities in the UK Jazz scene.
The email is in the public domain, and was previously shared in the comments of another article on this site. You should read it before speculating about its contents.
No, they’re saying that white people are guests and have no right to say anything. Read their above comments above.
Jazz can also be traced back to classical salons and instruments and chordal patterns. It’s an amalgamation. And who did he belittle?
Like watching Western liberalism eat itself. We used to be a culture of intellectual pluralism.
Why not simply change the entire structure of this college and dedicate it entirely to minority music, and only accessible to minority teachers and students? This would finally rectify the ages of suppression by white music and its musicians. It would finally balance-out the systemic injustice on which the entire music world is based, and would be the first music college being entirely racist-free.
(I see my PA smiling ecstatically.)
Bye Bye Speake and good riddance.
Stating explicitly in your email that your black teaching colleague are only hired to meet quotas should be a sackable offence let alone the rest of the racist diatribe.
My only sympathy is for the students of colour who have had to put up with your contempt for far too long.
Well done Trinity for recognising that this is just the ugly boil on the surface. The whole body needs curing and if necessary a clear out.
He never said that.
He did.
“Hence TL can only use the jazz course for their quotas hiring black staff and recruiting black students.”
His black colleagues and students are only at TL because the institution needs to meet quotas?! It’s there in black and white the disgraceful thing that he said which sparked the whollly justifiable protest and anger.
What a disgraceful man undermining the credibility and validity of every black academic and student at the institution. I am glad he is gone.
Once again, the lynching mobsters are lying. See above: the ONLY allegedly “racist” quote one of the foamers-at-the-mouth could find was this one: “Hence TL can only use the jazz course for their quotas hiring black staff and recruiting black students.”
One problem there, though: that sentence was part of a larger paragraph, which has a completely different meaning. (See below.) A meaning which can be debated? Sure. “Racist”? The only racism is the racism expressed by the lynching mob at TL led by their spineless principal. Don’t expect honesty and accuracy from people who decided to destroy somebody’s life based on their own racism and petty hatreds.
“Maybe in classical music and dance it is an issue but there are very few black classical musicians as far as I know, looking at the student body at TL or orchestras and professional musicians, although probably increasing? Let me know. You can’t force black children to play classical music just to get quotas up and promote ‘equality’, whatever that is. Hence TL can only use the jazz course for their quotas hiring black staff and recruiting black students.
It is the classical arena that needs to change in many ways and as I mentioned in a previous email to Aleks, particularly how it is taught. It is a mistake to direct any of this agenda to the jazz course or jazz scene. I feel it is divisive.”
“Once again, the lynching mobsters are lying. See above: the ONLY allegedly “racist” quote ….”
Q: How many racist “quotes” does an email need to contain before it can be described as racist?
A: One.
Everywhere where ‘affirmative action’ is applied, with the best of intentions, people being accepted in curricula begin to doubt whether they were accepted because of fulfilling quota or on the basis of their merit (recently Michelle Obama expressed this very doubt about herself). Therefore such doubt is inevitable, and its causes can never be fully established. Therefore racist elements can work both ways, with the only possible conclusion that the fight against racism cannot result in real progress if the means are racist as well.
Does anyone know where one can see this email?
https://slippedisc.com/2024/03/london-students-boycott-jazz-professor/
It’s about halfway down the comments now, posted by someone called Ex Trinity Student.
I saw it somewhere last week on Reddit. It’s very long, and he rambles a lot and alternates between kind of an anger at people and defensiveness. I think if he had just kept it short he’d have been better off. But there’s nothing racist about it unless you think that white people can’t have an opinion about “Black music.”
Let’s bring some simplicity to this.
First, these days, any insignificant nobody can invent a pseudo-intellectual concept, however nonsensical, and then publicise it (usually on the Internet). It then triggers a huge amount of debate, often by intelligent people and then, voila, it is accepted as fully legitimate. Thus you get ‘unconscious racism’, ‘micro-gestures’, ‘inappropriate pronouns’ (for which you could be dismissed from your job!!!), gender politics and similar bogus claptrap. It’s now gone beyond mere discussion – it is, to me (if not to you) shocking that young kids are being given drugs to retard puberty, and suchlike. This is surely child abuse pure and simple. Among all this bogus claptrap is ‘cultural appropriation’.
Culture simply cannot be ‘appropriated’ in the sense of a possession that one owns. It’s a contribution to civilisation as a whole; it’s for the whole world to enjoy, treasure and be enlightened. Did Beethoven write music solely for Germans to enjoy? Did Michelangelo paint solely for the benefit of Italian Catholics? Did Shakespeare write for Britons only? Would they have been furious to know that the whole world shares their peerless creations? Would Mozart have been furious to discover that his piano concertos were being played by Americans?
Taking this a step further, what’s all this nonsense about ‘respecting the origins of the creators’? Forgive me but when I listen to Scott Joplin, Coleridge Taylor or Chevalier de Saint-Georges I don’t think of respecting their black origins; I do so because I like their music.
Don’t even get me started on ‘cancelling’ this or that personality because their views on this or that don’t coincide with those of the twitterati who seem to be re-writing our history and re-inventing our language.
All entirely correct.
Those who actually read the letter will immediately recognize that the lynching mob LIES through their teeth when “quoting”, for instance, “your black teaching colleague are only hired to meet quotas”.
Beware, when somebody needs to dishonestly “paraphrase”, lie, distort and such the words of a man who is not here to defend himself, there is only one reason for that: the “offense” has to be pimped up in order to justify the industrial outrage.
The school made a mockery of itself with these nefarious exaggerations and calumnies, and the principal’s airs about being the “anti-racist conservatoire” are nothing but an orwellian projection of embedded racial prejudices and pathological pettiness.
The lynching mob mentality exhibited by the principal and his co-signing minions is incredibly ugly and vengeful. Shame on you all.
Instead of leading the young souls who trusted you towards a more mature understanding and tolerance, all you teach them is hatred and callousness. Shame.
It can’t be a “conversation” if all participants are required to think in total lockstep.
So I guess if jazz belongs to Black artists then classical music belongs to white artists. So when Black people sing opera they must respect where it came from?
It belongs to white people? I don’t get this territorial thing.
Sounds like some people in the business are out to get this guy because he has had the temerity to play Black music. And then make comments about it.
Is it not a form of racism to think that a work of art belongs especially to people who happen to be of the same race as the person who c reated it?
I doubt that Mr Speake is a secret racist. It seems more that he is rather outdated in his arguments and therefore letting personal experiences or frustrations tamper with his ideas which need a brush up.
My sensation is that he is worried that whilst an institution might succeed in becoming more diverse it might have done so by ignoring other access factors such as class. This no doubt is true in London where studying is prohibitively expensive.
It is certainly something that has been concerning many leading actors in theatre recently who have expressed doubt that with their working class backgrounds.
In a climate where the under-funding and cut backs in the arts we will no doubt see more of these conversations about who, what, where, when… I hope we can also remember that it is the oldest game in the world to turn one against the other.
It looks like this letter was shared to start a conversation. It was clumsily done. However let’s not peck each other to death, but recognise that the arts are powerful, the arts are in crisis and we need with humility up our game on.
Being from Wales I wonder that this worry about wider access might be a London problem where to study music is hugely costly. But again, my views might be outdated as well. I hope something good comes out of this sad story and that somehow British Jazz comes out stronger, more integrated and more diverse.