“My Abject Apology if This Unsafe Space Has Caused Anybody Fright”

For a variety of academic, professional, and personal reasons, I ponder a lot about “diversity,” though not the kinds saturated in identity politics and victimhood and overflowing in American higher education.  Rather, my kind of diversity is saturated in cuisines from around the world and showcased, on “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” every Friday night, just about all night, on the Food Network.  Think of the series as “celebrations of our differences” born of exquisite taste, not sophomoric distaste.

When it comes to radio, I resonate to celebrations of differences, writ worldwide, as aired on Classical MPR, 24 hours a day, every day.  As I write, it is 2:12 p.m. on a Thursday.  The idea for writing this blog came to me about an hour ago.  Here is a more-or-less chronological sampling of the often ethnicity-indicative last names of composers, conductors, violinists, pianists, and other musicians whose works and performances have played on Classical MPR since only midnight, less than 15 hours ago.

Liszt, Masur, Sibellius, Tchaikowsky, Gouvy, Smetana, Haydn, Puccini, Stravinsky, Boulez, Elnaudi, Debussy, Williams, Ravel, Maisky, Cimarosa, Mahler,  Wolf, Bach, Radulovic, Glazunov, Rossini, Stravinsky, Vivaldi, Purcell, and Copland.

Joplin, Thompson, Donizetti, Dvorak, Dinicu, Bernstein, Jarvi, Kreisler, Ma, Glinka, Villa-Lobos, Mozart, Cohen, Giulini, Schwarzkopf, Shumann, Horowitz, Beethoven, Nesterowicz, Skrowaczewski, Grimaud, Lamon, Flaure, and Saint-Georges.

Pretty impressive bunch of guys, right?

Egad!  I just realized that most of these guys are guys.  And almost all are white.  Not to mention admitted purveyors of Western Civilization.  What kind of diversity is that?

My abject apology if this unsafe space has caused anybody fright.  Especially with no trigger warnings in sight.