The symposium on Philip Ewell’s SMT 2019 plenary presentation, “Music Theory’s White Racial Frame,” in the most recent issue of the Journal of Schenkerian Studies (JSS) has been widely criticized for its systemic racism. (Note the difference between (i) individual racist beliefs, versus (ii) social structures that systematically exclude and disadvantage people of color—i.e. "systemic racism," or just "racism." The “social structure” definition applies in most contemporary discussions of institutionalized racism.) As I observe the unfolding reactions to the JSS issue, with anti-racist statements by formal and informal collectives as well as individuals, I thought it is important to direct attention also to the need to not just disavow systemic racism in Schenkerian theory and JSS, but to take further concrete action now by looking within our individual and collective teaching and scholarship, rethinking every element of music theory—i.e. to immediately and systematically materialize the promise made in several anti-racist statements (and in yet other words, action commences rather than concludes with drafting and signing a letter). Disavowal needs to be accompanied by a commitment to rooting out systemic racism in all areas of music theory, and in ethno/musicology if that is one's discipline. This is in part because selective disavowal can lead to distortions and unintended forms of coerciveness against minorities. Selective disavowal without a wider systemic anti-racism has the structural effect of at least temporarily implying that other areas of music research and teaching are not racist, excusing them from critique—clearly, music theory as a whole (beyond Schenker) is embedded in systemic exclusions that we know as systemic racism. Selective disavowals have the effect of ascribing a "racist" identity to the discarded object (as opposed to racist approaches to a given music-theoretical object), potentially re-inscribing violent epistemologies of essentialist racial identities onto people of color—through the implication that people of color "ought to" be anti-racist and thus cannot authentically teach or conduct research in Schenkerian theory or Western music in general. A similar problem is found with blanket decolonial projects aimed at dismantling Western music, which ignore the presence of composers, performers, and music scholars of Western music who are people of color. Any kind of dichotomous bifurcation, such as that effected by a selective disavowal, inevitably implies dualist-essentialist identities that always turn into the epistemic violence of coercive minority identity, commonly known as minority stereotyping. Put more simply, racism does not inhere in particular musics or theories; rather, racism is a social structure within which musics and theories are embedded, and thus all musics, theories, and disciplines have racist elements which need to be confronted.
As the contribution by Suzannah Clark in the JSS issue shows, it is possible to trace the racist elements in Schenkerian theory, as a first step in revising the entire theoretical apparatus. While Schenker was clearly racist, and his theory necessarily has racist elements, there are a wide range of ambiguities, complexities, and multiplicities which unfortunately were raised in the JSS issue for the purposes of deflection and defense, thus posing the real danger of shutting down all discussion of various issues: (i) race and racism, (ii) context and history, (iii) Schenker’s Jewish identity (not as a "defense" of Schenker, nor as an attack taking the form of accusing critics of Schenker of anti-Semitism; but as a real facet of his identity), (iv) the complex co-constitution and separability—or not—of music theory and race, (v) the applicability—or not—of facets of Schenkerian theory to repertoires beyond Western music, and more. Future scholarship will need to consider the contingency of racist elements of the Schenkerian apparatus, making difficult judgements on what elements can reasonably be regarded as having musical explanatory power and may be separable from racist ideology, on the one hand, and what elements are inextricably intertwined with racism (Clark suggests that Schenker's privileging of the dominant and exclusion of the subdominant speaks to his racial ideology). Various components of Schenkerian theory such as centricity-hierarchy or diminution were infused with his racism but have not been shown, by themselves and across musical genres, to be universally co-constituted with racism. I believe the work I outlined here is what Ewell is referring to when he wrote in his recent article in Music Theory Online: "If Schenkerian theory is to survive in the twenty-first century, as I hope it does, we must confront the uncomfortable realities not just of Schenker himself but, more important, of the legacy of how we have engaged with his ideas and what that means with respect to race in American music theory."
