To Make Orchestras More Diverse, End Blind Auditions

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/arts/music/blind-auditions-orchestras-race.html

by AinderS • 4 years ago

6 7 4 years ago

This is an old article, but at least it openly makes the case that we should value racial diversity and people who look like "the communities they serve" being valued more, and absolute technical perfection being valued less. We discriminate based on absolute technical perfection, instead we should discriminate based on identity and then based on absolute technical perfection. That's about as coherent as an argument as I've heard on the subject, and it's an argument entirely about what we should value, which makes it difficult to logically refute.

Personally, I don't see any reason each orchestra can't come up with its own basis to select its members, and you can let people vote with their feet.

jshzglr• 4 years ago

Should basketball teams be more representative as well. Where does this end?

MisterMower2• 4 years ago

I don’t think the extremely talented musician who loses out to a less talented musician just because they checked the right identity boxes will find that argument persuasive.

faeriechangling2• 4 years ago

Extreme talent is something you're born with, like much of identity. Why is selecting for one wrong, and the other right? Especially when selecting for identity will result in a final outcome that is preferred by some consumers of the orchestra?

I'm not super convinced by my own reasoning myself, but I can make a better steelman case for this argument than the typical "racism against groups we don't like is anti-racism" woke schlock I often read. The argument the article makes is simple, plainly stated, free of bullshit, to the point.

ZeroGravitas• 4 years ago

You can keep the blind auditions, but use them to pass X number of people into the final round, then use a (biased if you want that outcome) lottery to pick the actual winners.

I'm generally a fan of this concept. It forces people to acknowledge and deal with the pre-existing random element rather than false precision of saying X is best for this role. (Says who? By what metric? Are they infallible?) and stops people overinvesting in attempts to game that metric.

gbronner• 4 years ago

If you go to an orchestral concert to listen to the best musicians, this is a terrible idea. I don't think it is even legal in the US to pick based on race and gender

To Make Orchestras More Diverse, End Blind Auditions

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