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Black Exceptionalism Is Not Always Black Excellence
When Black people struggled to penetrate media of any kind, any representation was historic — but we need more from our art
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
On the last day of the 2021 edition of Black History Month, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio hosted a program celebrating the work of Black composers. The performance included work by William Grant Still; Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges; and Jeffrey Mumford. Being a faculty recital, the music was performed exclusively by White musicians, which is admittedly a redundant statement. I could be making an Oberlin joke here, but really, the overwhelming Whiteness of classical musicians and instructors would be true almost anywhere in America. Conservatories aren’t exactly brimming with Black harpsichord players.
While all of this cast grave suspicion on the equity of Oberlin’s staffing metrics, none of this was as bad as the event’s flyer, which featured not portraits of the three Black composers, but headshots of the five White musicians. To clarify: A performance titled “A Celebration of Black Artistry” marketed itself with pictures of five White people.
This kind of basic faux pas is so pervasive that while it may not have been intentional, it can hardly be called a mistake. (How many eyes fell upon that flyer on its way to the internet? Is it a waste of faith to pray that none of the eyes were Black? What year is this, anyway?) Regardless of how ubiquitous Black people may seem in media and corporate brochures, moments like these expose the continued need for more actual agency and less toothless representation.
Black people love to see Black folks winning, yet we are reluctant to unpack what qualifies as a win. If you don’t look at the data too closely, you might be convinced that a respectable level of representation has been achieved. Many of the TV series and movies that have come out in the past few years seem to have gotten the memo. And yet, in 2017, fewer than 20% of lead film actors were people of color. There are more Black directors now than perhaps ever before, but in a field that multiplies…
