LaGuardia Arts High School and White Supremacy
LaGuardia Arts High School and White Supremacy
An Asian Alumni’s Reflection on LaGuardia Arts and Music Education
This is Robert Schumann.
He is one of the defining musicians of the romantic era, hence the nickname a romantic hero by NPR. Schumann was one of the many male European composers revered, worshiped, and put on a sky-high pedestal by LaGuardia Arts High School’s music department. In our Music History course, we were taught about the pianist born on 8 June 1810 in Zwickau, Kingdom of Saxony, a territory now considered to be a part of Germany. Both LaGuardia and European Classical music connoisseurs describe Schumann as a talented pianist and a brilliant composer. He penned many masterpieces like Fantasie in C, Op. 17, Carnaval, Op.9, and so forth, which helped shape Romantic era music as we know it today.
Nearly every morning, our teacher dimmed the lights and hovered their mouse over the play button to begin our listening piece. My peers and I closed our eyes and listened to “masterpiece” after “masterpiece” of those created by European male composers throughout the eras. Then, as my teacher quickly turned the lights back on, we squinted at the sharp light and wrote down our observations: what was the tempo like? Did it have any distinctive phrasing? How about artistry? The dynamic? Expression? Every morning, this is how Music History functioned. We were taught that music began in Europe with the Medieval-era Gregorian Chant as if music had not grown with civilization. However, archeologists-discovered flutes dating back 43,000 years beg to differ. It was hard to believe everything school taught me. At night, my father and I ate steamed fish garnished with scallion with rice as he taught me the history of China: a several-thousand-year-old civilization. Having grown up listening to Chinese operas with my Grandma and belting to Leslie Cheung on road trips to Monkey Hill (馬騮山), I continued my musical education at the Upper West Side building with skepticism.
Did you know that Robert Schumann was a pedophile? Yes! It took me five years and a friend heavily invested in this low-budget and hilarious Korean variety show full of fictional and truth-based skits to finally learn that Robert Schumann was a freaking pedophile! One skit showed a composer falling in love with a nine-year-old girl pianist, but the pedophile and other love interest, Brahms, are competing for the girl and are in a love triangle! When the girl’s father finds out about the pedophile’s interest in his daughter, he breaks the pedophile’s hand by slamming the piano keys cover onto the pedophile’s hand. Ouch, but well deserved for being a predator. In the end, it was revealed that the skit was based on a true story, which sent me down a spiral. I frantically typed a bunch of randomly stringed keywords into Google to figure out: What? When? Where? Who? Why? My eyes widened, and my eyebrows furrowed in shock and outrage upon discovering it was based on a love triangle between Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann, and Robert Schumann.
That Robert Schumann? The composer we learned about and were taught to worship and revere as the Romantic-era music legend? I found myself going down a Google rabbit hole and, sadly, found out that it was true. Clara was actually nine years old when they first met, Robert actually groomed her, and they actually got married later on. Shivers raced down my spine as I questioned my entire education at LaGuardia. If we were taught to worship a creepy, predatory composer and put him on such a high pedestal, what if some of the composers we were taught to praise were just as bad, if not worse?
Though horrified, I can’t say I’m shocked.
I graduated in 2017, but I still think about my education at that performing arts high school weekly and how eurocentric, racist, transphobic, xenophobic, what-have-you-phobic that school truly is. In the height of the 2020 surge of Black Lives Matter following the death of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and countless more, students and alumni at LaGuardia created their own anonymous sharing account, @blackatlaguardia. This account is dedicated to amplifying the racist and silenced stories of Black and POC people at a school that upheld white supremacy at nearly every chance they had. As a former student, I can attest to how difficult it was for LGBTQIA+ and POC students to confront inequality and not be ostracized as a ‘deranged’ person, hence the importance of anonymous submissions to an account of over 3,200+ followers. Scroll, and you’ll read accounts of Black hair being grabbed and described as, “wow it’s so nappy.” Scroll further, and you’ll learn that there are zero Black students in the Drama cohort of 2022. If you scroll more, you’ll see that Ansel Elgort sat in social studies learning about the Niger river, mocking another student by repeatedly calling them the hard “-er” slur, and much more. As a fellow Asian American alumnus, it’s deeply upsetting to see one of LaGuardia’s most prized alumni with such a dark history of S.A. and racism advance so far in Hollywood. While many articles like this Vanity Fair article come to Ansel’s defense and reiterate his apology and denial, I can’t say I believe his words at face value given his history of immaturity and racism.
Varying Treatment of Students and Alumni
That’s the thing. Ansel was prized as one of LaGuardia’s shimmering trophies. During my years at the school, the only people consistently praised across LaGuardia students and faculty were Ansel Elgort, Timothée Chalamet, and occasionally Jennifer Aniston, but why specifically them? Why were successful POC students, alumni, and faculty ignored? Our generation was the ones that grew up with the amazingly talented fellow-alumni Corbin Bleu, and many of us ironically became the singing and dancing in-the-hallway Chad Danforth of High School Musical. Fellow alumni Michael Che is the first Black co-anchor of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update. Of course, who can forget Jharrel Jerome? You may know Jerome’s phenomenal work with Screen Actors Guild Award-nominated Moonlight (2016) and When They See Us (2019). I was introduced to him as Usnavi from In The Heights during our annual musicals at LaGuardia. I cannot begin to describe the profound effect it had on me, seeing an Afro-Latino perform at my school’s annual musical, to now seeing him on the big screen. He defied odds with his perseverance and talent, and yet he is not praised enough at LaGuardia.
Needless to say, LaGuardia did not welcome people of color with open arms. We were, quite literally, kicked out of most curriculum. When budget cuts forced the music faculty to choose between the European, male-centric “Music History” and Jazz History, the faculty decided to cut Jazz History. Apparently, “Music History” needed to be taught, as if Jazz History was of lesser importance. How ironic is this? The majority of the genres of music we see today can be traced back to African and Black roots. However, this wasn’t emphasized at all at the Upper West Side performing arts high school. At all! Inequality and ostracization of victims who spoke up ran rampant during my four years. For the safety of all students, I sincerely hope it has changed. However, upon hearing that a LaGuardia faculty member called a Muslim student a “terrorist” in front of her class, I can’t say that I have hopes of racism and Islamophobia ending anytime soon.
How White Supremacy is Enforced
This is not to say my entire high school education was a waste or that I am ungrateful, as some faculty may say. Instead, being in this performance space opened my eyes to the deeper issues that plague the performing arts and visual art sphere. LaGuardia’s music department prepares students for the New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) jury, a nerve-wracking performance where students are urged to perform NYSSMA level 5 and 6 songs in front of a panel of guest judges. However, if you take a look here, you will find that male European composers dominate the level 5 and 6 songs list: Brahms, Brahms, Dvorak, “A Little China Figure” (who breaks at the end by being knocked off a shelf) by Franco Leoni, Mozart, Shubert, Schubert, Schumann. Remember him? The pedophile?
Though there are issues to be addressed and reparations to be made specifically at LaGuardia, I beg music departments across the U.S. to re-evaluate what they choose to teach and omit. Consider whether educators are advocating for all of their students' best interests and how their educational material may shape the future of music education and society as a whole. For example, instead of teaching students to worship European male composers uncritically, consider the history of music globally. While creating a music education curriculum, consider these: How has music formed around the world? Additionally, in what ways has it shaped cultures and civilizations? I fear that true music history will eventually one day succumb to white supremacy. One day, underrepresented yet impactful narratives may be lost forever. So to all music educators, I say, you have the power to redefine and re-introduce global narratives in music. Embrace music history for all that it is, instead of what music history is currently understood to be.
Additional resources for educators, musicians, and students:
YouTube: Khadija Mbowe | Critical Race Theory (a beginner’s guide)
YouTube: PBS NewsHour | What is Critical Race Theory?
YouTube: Tedx Talks | Black American Music (B.A.M.)
The Conversation | Music Education has a Race Problem, and Universities Must Address It
YouTube: Nate | If I Were a Racist - A Reflection on Music Education in 2020