"Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble." The Honorable Congressman John Lewis
"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color." Colin Kaepernick
I have been a music educator in the city of Oakland, CA since 1987. In 1997 I accepted a music position with the Oakland Unified School District and by the end of the school year, I was convinced that music education as a co-curricular subject during the school day is not valued. I chose not to renew my contract and searched for other ways to continue my life journey of ensuring that Black and Brown youth have access to rigorous, culturally-sustaining music education.
I have immeasurable admiration and respect for every music educator who shows up every day for their students. They are truly unsung heroes. As we are living through a global pandemic in concert with the upending of white supremacy in all of its iterations, the artists are getting us through, speaking truth to power, challenging systemic oppression in every sector of life. Music educators need to lead that charge in our field and start by ridding their performance curriculum of the national anthem.
On July 26, 2020, at 11:47 pm I received an email from three Oakland Unified School District music educators announcing that they will be preparing a virtual performance of the Stars Spangled Banner for the Oakland Athletics to "be played on local television and possibly ESPN." Students of my school, the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music were invited to participate in the performance. The letter outlined the process of production, location, schedule, and other logistics. Inspired by Congressman John Lewis' mandate to "make some noise" and stir up some "necessary trouble," I responded. Excerpts of their letter and my full response are reproduced below.
I have been a music educator in the city of Oakland, CA since 1987. In 1997 I accepted a music position with the Oakland Unified School District and by the end of the school year, I was convinced that music education as a co-curricular subject during the school day is not valued. I chose not to renew my contract and searched for other ways to continue my life journey of ensuring that Black and Brown youth have access to rigorous, culturally-sustaining music education.
I have immeasurable admiration and respect for every music educator who shows up every day for their students. They are truly unsung heroes. As we are living through a global pandemic in concert with the upending of white supremacy in all of its iterations, the artists are getting us through, speaking truth to power, challenging systemic oppression in every sector of life. Music educators need to lead that charge in our field and start by ridding their performance curriculum of the national anthem.
On July 26, 2020, at 11:47 pm I received an email from three Oakland Unified School District music educators announcing that they will be preparing a virtual performance of the Stars Spangled Banner for the Oakland Athletics to "be played on local television and possibly ESPN." Students of my school, the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music were invited to participate in the performance. The letter outlined the process of production, location, schedule, and other logistics. Inspired by Congressman John Lewis' mandate to "make some noise" and stir up some "necessary trouble," I responded. Excerpts of their letter and my full response are reproduced below.
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Dear Colleagues,
Play Ball!!
We are excited to announce a virtual band performance project of recording the National Anthem for the Oakland Athletics! This year, our participation would be a composite video recording that students can submit and will be stitched together. This will be played on local television, and possibly on ESPN.
Dear Colleagues,
Play Ball!!
We are excited to announce a virtual band performance project of recording the National Anthem for the Oakland Athletics! This year, our participation would be a composite video recording that students can submit and will be stitched together. This will be played on local television, and possibly on ESPN.
......
As many of you may know, we have performed the National Anthem several times at the Oakland Coliseum and have even used it as an opportunity to share our voice in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement. We are of the opinion that we can offer our collective musical voice and play the national anthem along with some visual representation of our commitment to Black Lives and Social Justice. With that in mind, please consider what kind of visual representations you might have in your recording (a BLM shirt, a colorful/decorative backdrop, etc.).
.....
KDOL, our OUSD television station, has agreed to partner with us to do a location shoot - to film you playing your instrument, in solos, duos, trios, in front of some of the beautiful new artwork in and around Ogawa Plaza. You are invited to come and play!!.....
We are looking forward to sharing the talents of Oakland Music Students and take place in the national dialogue of race at the same time!
----------------------
As many of you may know, we have performed the National Anthem several times at the Oakland Coliseum and have even used it as an opportunity to share our voice in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement. We are of the opinion that we can offer our collective musical voice and play the national anthem along with some visual representation of our commitment to Black Lives and Social Justice. With that in mind, please consider what kind of visual representations you might have in your recording (a BLM shirt, a colorful/decorative backdrop, etc.).
.....
KDOL, our OUSD television station, has agreed to partner with us to do a location shoot - to film you playing your instrument, in solos, duos, trios, in front of some of the beautiful new artwork in and around Ogawa Plaza. You are invited to come and play!!.....
We are looking forward to sharing the talents of Oakland Music Students and take place in the national dialogue of race at the same time!
----------------------
MY RESPONSE
Greetings to all,
Randy, thank you for the invitation for OPC students to contribute to the performance of the National Anthem for the Oakland Athletics, but OPC will be taking a knee and on tacit with any and all performances of this song. I am actually appalled by the decision of the OUSD music department to perform this anthem written by Francis Scott Key, a racist, white supremacist, proponent of shipping free Black folk back to Africa, and participant in the owning of enslaved Africans.
The deeper we go into the history of this song, the more we uncover its white supremacist/racist roots and that it needs to be ditched, much like the removal of monuments to white supremacy throughout the country. For example, Key, an advisor of President Andrew Jackson persuaded him to appoint Roger Taney to his cabinet. Jackson later appointed him to the SCOTUS. As Chief Justice, Taney rendered the majority opinion in which he wrote that enslaved African Americans "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever profit could be made by it." The full lineage of the anthem is too much for this email. Suffice it to say, this anthem is rooted in practices and histories that are bound in everything that we are working so hard to dismantle.
How do OUSD music students profit from the performance of the Star-Spangled Banner? Furthermore, what does the OUSD music department stand to gain? Continuing to perform this song is nothing less than tacit agreement with the maintenance of curricula that support white supremacy in music education. Without a deep study and conversation with students of the origins of the anthem, the buttressing and framing of your performance of the national anthem of the United States as being in support of BLM is nothing less than cooptation. I urge you all to rethink this decision and if it is decided to go forward, teach the musicians the origins of the song.
Colin Kaepernick said, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color."
Whether students take a knee or not, the song represents just what Kap has expressed.
Cordially,
Angela Wellman
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Greetings to all,
Randy, thank you for the invitation for OPC students to contribute to the performance of the National Anthem for the Oakland Athletics, but OPC will be taking a knee and on tacit with any and all performances of this song. I am actually appalled by the decision of the OUSD music department to perform this anthem written by Francis Scott Key, a racist, white supremacist, proponent of shipping free Black folk back to Africa, and participant in the owning of enslaved Africans.
The deeper we go into the history of this song, the more we uncover its white supremacist/racist roots and that it needs to be ditched, much like the removal of monuments to white supremacy throughout the country. For example, Key, an advisor of President Andrew Jackson persuaded him to appoint Roger Taney to his cabinet. Jackson later appointed him to the SCOTUS. As Chief Justice, Taney rendered the majority opinion in which he wrote that enslaved African Americans "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever profit could be made by it." The full lineage of the anthem is too much for this email. Suffice it to say, this anthem is rooted in practices and histories that are bound in everything that we are working so hard to dismantle.
How do OUSD music students profit from the performance of the Star-Spangled Banner? Furthermore, what does the OUSD music department stand to gain? Continuing to perform this song is nothing less than tacit agreement with the maintenance of curricula that support white supremacy in music education. Without a deep study and conversation with students of the origins of the anthem, the buttressing and framing of your performance of the national anthem of the United States as being in support of BLM is nothing less than cooptation. I urge you all to rethink this decision and if it is decided to go forward, teach the musicians the origins of the song.
Colin Kaepernick said, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color."
Whether students take a knee or not, the song represents just what Kap has expressed.
Cordially,
Angela Wellman
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Students are encouraged to have a "visual representation of [their] commitment to Black Lives and Social Justice." How is the performance of the national anthem, in a BLM t-shirt, in front of the protest murals in downtown Oakland, a true representation of a commitment to Black Lives and Social Justice?
Whatever happens, the Star-Spangled Banner, a musical monument to white supremacy and racism, has no place in the band rooms of our schools. One of the teachers on the list suggested sending a recording of Lift E'vry Voice and Sing instead. I concur.
Until next time,
Make necessary trouble, y'all,
Angela
Good job Angela Wellman!!! Proud of OPC, your response and thrilled to see some "good trouble right here in my hometown... OAKLAND PROUD!!!!
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