Sarah Abdalla

Professor Cerri- Morgan

English Composition 1302

Racism and Music- Cause and Effect

09 February 2018/ Week 4

How does ‘Racism’ Sound?

Music has been an unyielding force in the face of adversity, in the light of hope,

and the consistent motion of life. From connecting new ideas together to simply putting

emotions to an upbeat tempo, music’s versatility continues to be expanded on each and

every day. Because of its free range of motion, anyone with a story to tell can share it,

which can serve and refrain the truth.

Music’s ability to tell a story can benefit and detract from each race’s ability to

communicate their story to others. Because music can propagate an image more rapidly

than most mediums, it makes it ideal for spreading political awareness, relative

experiences, and feelings of unjust. One of the best qualities that this art provides is its

colorblind manipulation by whomever. The field is not limited to a certain group or

sector of the population. Anybody, near and far, can be a refuge for the hurt, the lonely,

or the unspoken. Brilliantly said, “while music used to guide the viewer through a

narrative, such as in the examples above, is mostly innocuous there are many other ways

in which music is used to move us.” (Contemporary Art Forms, 4) Because of the

multitude of impacts of sharing a narrative though a first-hand account or through a

score in the undertones of film or through a videogame story, there is a proliferation of

the message the conductor/score writer wants to convey to their audience.

Up until this, racism was known to mostly be cultivated through sources of

objectivity and not outlets of creativity. White supremacy scientists would justify their

superior authority over blacks, Latinos, Asian, and other people of color. In became a

new phenomenon when racism began to fester in the lyrics of tunes created to mock,

frequently utilizing black-face in visual productions of the music. “While science is

bound by the world of representation and appearances, art presents ideas or represents

levels of the will’s objectification.” (Contemporary Art Forms, 5)

Both images and sounds, when arranged in a certain way, can create thoughts in

the mind of the audience. These illustrations do not only reference previous theories but

also add to them with context and new associations or dimensions. “Lyrics as part of

music have been around for a long time but it started to become the norm for popular

music to contain lyrics in the 11th -13th centuries in Provencal France with

Troubadours.” (Contemporary Art Forms, 6) While using the music to help determine

meaning, the audience becomes less questioning and more accepting of what is

happening. This blatant acceptance of social unjust became normalized, and thus

systemized racism.
 Works Cited

Bodetti, Kristina, "The Philosophical Side of Contemporary Art Forms" (2015). CUNY

Academic Works.

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/526