The Patriot Post® · School Band: No More Music Composed by White Guys

I have some bad news for all of you Burt Bacharach fans. The Spring Lake Park High School in Minnesota has decided to stop purchasing music composed by white guys — at least for the time being. “We made a commitment this year to only buy music from composers of color,” marching band director Brian Lukkasson told National Public Radio. And, well, the truth is Burt Bacharach is about as white as a jar of Duke’s Mayonnaise.

The marching band also pledges to toot their horns to at least one musical selection composed by a lady. Apparently, some of the teenage musicians were terribly offended and downright disturbed because they were performing music composed by white folks. “There’s a kind of an ideological segregation of who can and cannot be in band, based on who the composers are, and what the music is like,” student Kia Muleta told the radio network partially funded by your tax dollars. “I really, really want other students of color to be able to feel like they are welcomed and appreciated anywhere, that they don’t have to check themselves at the door,” she added.

I have no idea what that means — but whatever. “The more you practice talking about race, culture and ethnicity, the more comfortable you are,” band director Nora Tycast said. It sounds to me like racism disguised as diversity. Mr. Holland’s opus it is not.