Blackface Experts at Scripps and Questions to the NYT Magazine 's Ethicist from Pomona

As many of you know, Pomona College has canceled their school song because of its alleged racist origins. The decision remains problematic and controversial for reasons I have already alluded to here and here.

According to fliers placed all around campus, the alma mater, "Hail, Pomona, Hail" was sung at a minstrel show and therefore banned by David W. Oxtoby. What many of you probably did not know is that the ethics surrounding the very controversial decision were recently discussed in was featured in The New York Times Magazine, under the following title, "The Heart of the Alma Mater."

The Claremont Insider first noticed this story a few days back and pointed me to it. Here's the link.

I quote Buzz, quoting the article.

Julia DeIuliis, of Philadelphia, writes: "A college with which I am affiliated discovered that its alma mater was written for a blackface minstrel show in the 1900s. Although the lyrics are innocuous, the school banned the song from this year's graduation and formed a group to discuss its future use, part of a campaign to make students aware of things they take for granted. Is this a good response, or should the school focus on more important issues? Is it unethical to sing the song?"

Cohen replies: "Sing out--full-throated, clear-conscienced..." He then goes on to give cover to Pomona College President David Oxtoby, who made the decision to ban the singing of the song: "The school's response is not only ethical but also admirable. It did what a college should... This particular project may be evaluated for its efficacy...but should still be praised for its intent. "

Here is the final paragraph from the article itself.

The school’s response is not only ethical but also admirable. It did what a college should: cultivate in its students an alertness to the historical origins and cultural implications of things around them. This particular project may be evaluated for its efficacy — does it achieve this worthy goal? — but should still be praised for its intent. And if from time to time such activities drift toward minor matters, that need not prevent the school from tackling more significant issues.

Forgive me for being a bit textualist on this point, but the words from the song aren't offensive. The intent of its author is clear -- to produce a song that would unite the campus. And low, based upon some of the emails I have received indicate that it has succeeded admirably.

Shouldn't the intents and plain meaning of a song writer matter more than the political correct goals of a privileged elite? Who cares what Oxtoby's intents are? Who cares what his goals are? Maybe he should measure the social costs of taking a decision without consulting the alumni community? Maybe he should have thought before he jumped at the risk of the appearance of political correctness...

Never you mind that most actors in Hollywood appeared in blackface until the 1950s and that Pomona has a buidling on campus called the Milikan building named after someone whose research in small part provided the theoretical basis for the atomic bomb. When will Pomona tear down that building. After all, his namesake has the blood of thousands of Japanese civilians on his hands. (For the record, I don't genuine believe that. I would have supported the detonation of the atomic bomb -- but not the fire bombings -- had I been around back then. Distinguishing between military and civilian social orders was all but impossible in militaristic Japan.)

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Meanwhile, Scripps College's Mark Golub weighs in on issue you know you've been thinking about nonstop: Robert Downey Jr.'s wearing blackface in Tropic Thunder.


Here is what he said,

A hundred years ago, immigrant audiences from countries such as Italy and Ireland -- who often were not considered "white" by native-born Americans -- went to blackface shows to laugh at outsiders and feel white, said Mark Golub, an expert on blackface who teaches at Scripps College in California.

Heavens knows how Mr. Golub knows how Americans of Italian and Irish descent felt one hundred years ago. Quite a stretch... I suppose when you have an expert in blackface at one of the Claremont colleges, the other colleges feel a need to find a contemporary application of what is otherwise a completely esoteric concept and historical relic.

That Scripps College has an expert on blackface tells you everything you need to know about the effect multiculturalism has had on Claremont college students. Simply, it is a rot that renders reason useless in the minds of many of our friends and few of our professors. For more fun, read Ilan Wurman's piece on The Closing of the CMC Mind.

Tragically, the door is closing on the era the produced some of the greatest thought of the later half of the 20th century.