Klarinet Archive - Posting 000209.txt from 1999/02

From: "Mark Charette" <charette@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Women and orchestras
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 1999 10:17:00 -0500

From: DHmorgan@-----.com>
> >Ah, but here's the problem. They've done studies that show that even
> in
> >double blind situations, evaluators will rank the performance of
people
> of
> >their race and gender HIGHER than other races and genders. The
> examples I'm
> >thinking of have to do with writing, but I wouldn't be surprised if
it
> weren't
> >the same with music.

You know, the more I think about this, the madder I get. What is wrong
with ranking people that communicate the way you do higher than those
that don't? It isn't prejudice (since there's nothing to prejudge in a
double blind study). It's just _liking_ certain styles. Yes, a bias. I
have no problem with biases. I normally don't like Chinese opera music
since it's jarring to my ears. So what? There's probably over a billion
people who do enjoy it. It has nothing to do with racism, but everything
to do with what I've been exposed to, my biases. I grew up hearing the
classical music of Europe, the jazz of America, the polkas of the Slavic
nations, the tangos and choros of South America, the guitar stylings of
Spain, French chanson. I like that music. Music that doesn't fit into
those genres is difficult for me to listen to - I'm biased. If I had to
listen to music from other countries and rank them I think you'd find
that I'd rate music I wasn't used to lower that the music I was used to.
That's pretty natural, don't you think?

I wrote:
> I would hesitate greatly before making that jump. _Possibly_ it may
have
> something to do with a teaching tradition common to a nationality or
> area, but it probably has nothing to do with race per se.

You wrote
>It would be impractical to design and execute a study for every
category of
>bias imaginable, so it is necessary to do some judicious extrapolation
based
>on previous research.

Please remember the judicious!

<snip>
>Everyone in the law school study was aiming for the same
>'style' of writing--legal writing--and the teachers evaluating the
students
>were all using, in their minds, an objective criteria--sound legal
writing.
>But the bias was--and it--still there. Based on this and a lot of
other
>research, it would seem to be a huge jump for people who audition
musicians to
>assume that there ISN'T any bias.

Who would claim there isn't bias? Bias towards what they want and expect
to hear. After all, it's an _audition_! You're saying that there's
something wrong when judging is based on biases - I see nothing wrong.
In fact, I think that biases are the only reason _for_ the audition,
otherwise anyone of (whatever could be construed as) the proper talent
level should just be handed the job.

>There may, in fact, be nothing that can be done about it, but that's no
reason
>reject the possibility that it's there.

Which, if you carefully read my posting, I do not claim. I just find it
hard to believe, and making _this_ great an extrapolation would be,
IMNSHO, injudicious.

Cheers,
----
Mark Charette@-----.org
Webmaster, http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet
All-around good guy and devil-may-care flying fool.
"There can be no freedom without discipline." - Nadia Boulanger

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