I have never been marginalized, and likely never will be. I am very privileged, and any struggles I have endured were not a result of how I look, who I love, or my parents' station in life. I often don't have to worry about money, and I always see myself represented in media and culture. Largely, the White students in my class see themselves embedded within my curriculum. I have made more efforts to represent students of color as well, but unfortunately the material selections for young music ensembles is very limited. Much of what's written is by White folks, especially White men. While I take the time to find music written by women and people of color, I have to dig a lot harder to find them and I should not have to. Until such materials become more widely available, however, dig I shall! Time as a resource is a mark of my privilege, and I can use it to showcase materials that equitably represent people of all kinds in the music we perform and the artists we learn about. I even have been taking stock of how I even teach the ensembles we are in, and also consider how our ensembles founded in Western classical music are inherently racist, as putting Western classical music on a pedestal above all other styles the world over has been a tool for reinforcing white supremacy. I would like to think that we can transform that narrative and include all into such a space, even if it means dismantling significant pieces of it, but it does still bother me.
