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I am having a flashback. It was just 14 months ago that a quintet of protected classes (recited twice) and the name Darcie Aungst were all over a show design announcement. Now it is an "equality and inclusion committee". Inclusion? Really? And of all times, this moment of maximum irony? Drum corps WAS a truly inclusive activity, once upon a time. Now, it is unapologetically focused on being an advanced-placement summer camp for experienced alumni of the scholastic marching arts activities, which themselves are based largely in affluent suburbia. Drum corps can no longer even create the pretense of being "inclusive" toward the inexperienced and/or at-risk youth that they used to routinely train from scratch back in the day. And now, the activity faces its own economic challenges - some of which are of its own making. Forgive me if I do not hold my breath waiting to see how drum corps renounces its expensive ways, and instead returns to prioritizing outreach to the socioeconomically underprivileged. Notice that the poor are not one of the groups selected for greater opportunity and inclusion in these virtue signaling exercises.

yeah the old director had a special way about it

As a society we evolve and we reevaluate. Some of society at least. The danger lies in not being able to do so and to continue to make the same mistakes.

Sure, and if we all trace our roots back far enough, we'll find immigrants, some legal, some not. Some would go so far as to say earth's original settlers were interplanetary aliens. Considering some of the folks I have met in Drum Corps, I can believe that.

So does every organization that looks into their practices about inclusion suddenly a SJW and “woke”? What about groups that have updated their sexual harassment policy and procedures. That falls under inclusion and making sure all people in the group feel non threatened.

Always thought of Drum Corps as more progressive than the rest of society in general. We obviously knew who the kids of color were, who the gay kids were (for the most part), and it wasn't a "thing" since we all focused on a common goal. If Garfield feels they have an issue that needs to be addressed (and it's not just virtue signaling), well, good for them!

because discrimination exists within the activity.

Is she related to Jack?

First Rule of Acquisition applies.

I agree! The virtue signaling in America is at epic proportions. Are human beings perfect? No, never will be. But I believe DCI (and the Cadets) are going overboard in an attempt to appear woke. For the most part, DCI has been inclusive and accepting for years.

It was one wedgie and I said I was sorry.

I was on the board it's a thankless, consuming job.

I think it's absolutely true that people tend to believe the past was better than it was, and thus see the present as worse than it is. Even so, 2020 has felt like a pretty nasty combination of 1918, 1933, and 1968.

I'm not connected to the Cadets, but just by way of comparison: the non-profits performing arts organization I work for is undergoing a similar process to what the Cadets have outlined. It's not my place to get in specifics of what I've heard people share in these discussions, but I can say that I found, as we devled into this subject, that white employees and BIPOC employees have pretty different views about how racially inclusive the organization has been.

thank goodness rational adults in the org are acknowledging there's been a problem for decades. that doesn't take being woke, just being a real human being who acknowledges that people with experiences different from their own do in fact exist.

But it’s “the biggest threat to this activity we love”.lol I guess a global pandemic with no vaccine that shut down the season means nothing.

1 whole post for this to become a cesspool. shocker.

Cadets go all in as social justice warriors. This is the biggest threat to the activity we love. Why are they focused on the sexual orientation of the members? DCI is sliding down a slippery slope.

It has nothing to do with being social justice warriors or being woke. It has everything to do with listening to the members and alumni of the organization, and responding in a manner that is appropriate given the circumstances. When you have alumni of the corps going on social media and detailing experiences that do not represent inclusiveness and equality, it would be a dereliction of duty if the corps administration didn't take a harder look at policies, procedures and the overall culture.

N.E. knows what women want. He was played by Mel Gibson in the movie.

That’s good to hear. I do think she deserves credit for committing to studying the matter as opposed to reflexively adopting a specific movement or terminology.

She does fall into a unique category . Breeding....🙂 can not be denied

Denise has been around the block. I think she isn’t virtue signaling. She is the real deal.

And you know this how? Suppose we discovered that not as many women want to be a corps director. What then?

Virtue signaling isn’t partway towards addressing the problem. Virtue signaling encumbers addressing the problem and, as a result, contributes to the problem. I will leave it to others to decide whether the announcement is virtue signaling. I personally hope it isn’t, but there are aspects of its nature and rhetoric that I find concerning. And given the trends we have seen with organizations rushing out to embrace specific movements they don’t fully understand, with little regard to the harms that may be done to the very communities they claim to support, I can understand why thoughtful people might be skeptical.

Possibly because women still are more involved, on a daily basis, with their children.

In the D&BC world, if racial/gender quotas were instituted, would it be similar to what has caused frustration in the academic/business/government community? "Yes, you had higher scores and a stronger resume, but we're obligated by law to take a lower scoring/skilled person."

I’m not sure that drum corps itself is more progressive, but I do think when it comes to race, in general each generation seems to grow. Regarding race, I do think it depends on where and when you marched. There are some corps that disbanded when “the neighborhood changed.” For some it was financial. For others, it was because of who moved in the neighborhood. This happened in the late 60’s/early 70’s, but up to the early 80’s, there at least appeared to be an unwritten rule that if you were a person of color, you did not march with Corps X. This may have been more perception than reality, but it existed. In the late 80’s, there was a predominately African American corps that marched in a July 4th parade in my hometown. I spoke with some of the chaperones and their stories of the their experiences with other corps at competitions was horrifying. Cadets assembling a committee to look at inclusion does not mean the corps has a problem that needs to be addressed. Many businesses are doing the same thing right now. It is better to examine things now so that if there is an issue, it can be addressed. My guess is that this will not be an isolated Cadets initiative and other corps will have similar committees.

Such things require honest, rational, respectful discussion, actually listening and trying to understand each other.

Marching member no but had Allee(sp?) with Court of Honor around mid 2000s. She played tymp in the pit and was on DCP for a while. No idea how CoH dealt with Allee not being able to see the DM.

So I have decided Star of Indiana 1992 is the 4th of July champion. I thought it was Americana schlock, but after seeing Blast! Right after 9/11 and hearing the Amber Waves ballad,, I learned to appreciate it more than when I saw it originally. So 1992 star is my 4th of July champion!

While I think drum corps never was as truly inclusive as you think, you're absolutely right to call out class as an issue that needs to be addressed. I hope you will dig deeply into the steps that would need to be taken to make drum corps truly accessible in this way.

Obviously we should hope that it goes past mere signalling to actually addressing the problem.

Indeed, although to be fair to drum corps: I think the critics in this thread are correct that drum corps has often been better about this than society writ large. That said, I think it might be easier for people to see this discrmination if we were talking about sex rather than race (and to be sure, Cadets aren't limiting their work to the latter issue), because everyone can see more clearly how closely drum corps matches the population. How many corps directors are women? It's never been anywhere near 50%, right? There's no natural reason for that. Nothing about women makes them worse drum corps leaders than men. Rather, there is a systematic and largely unconscious bias in drum corps (and society at large) that has kept them from positions of power. For example: one response to this point might be: "But no woman who was qualified applied for the job!" It's not good enough to stop there. Even if true, you have to ask yourself: why is that there are lots of men but no women with the qualifications? And the answer will surely be: women aren't getting the drum corps jobs that would qualify them to move up to leadership. And so on. At no point in this chain need there be anyone who thinks "women are inferior". But just because the problem is unconscious doesn't mean it's not a problem.

Shall we say inclusive to those people fortunate enough to be able to afford to join? I get your point and I agree.....

Yes. And how would VK's 'Sex Cymbals' be interpreted today? Or the Surfer Girl? In hindsight these were somewhat questionable design choices, but there is also a danger in applying current standards retroactively.

July 5, 2002, 10:13pm ET - Tour Day 43 Allentown, PA → Hanover, PA Well, it turned out that we got a free day after all. Instead of going to Hersheypark, we did a performance and then had free time at Dorney Park. I, for one, appreciated the time off. I got to spend a few hours with my family and Megan. The parades yesterday were pretty rough due to the extreme heat conditions, but the corps took care of us as best they could and we made it through pretty well. About 20 minutes into the ride from Bristol, Rhode Island to Wakefield, Massachusetts, our bus shut down because it was overheating. We dispersed onto the rest of the buses, but it was very crowded and uncomfortable. I was actually one of the lucky ones because I got a seat while others had to stand for over an hour. So all in all, we’re working towards erasing our last show in Bristol with a strong showing in Hershey tomorrow night. (Next post is July 7.)

Or maybe just making sure that there isn’t an issue before it occurs.

yup. and right now schools can't even figure out how they will handle their main objective

My question was specifically directed to someone who appeared to be saying the Cadets needed to be “acknowledging there’s been a problem for decades”, and provided an opportunity to either clarify that’s not what he meant (so as not to harm others) or provide evidence of long-standing racist practices within the Cadets organization that supports the contention (so it can be taken seriously and addressed). So far he has refrained from doing either. My memory is fine. For example, I remember knowing about 100s of years of “political, economic, and social unrest“ that was far worse than what we have today. And living through some of it.

Perhaps none, but remember we view things differently today. A non Cadets situation could be an example. Did anyone blink an eye when the Bridgemen, a drum corps from a very northern city in a very northern state, closed in 1979 and 1980 with a Civil War themed ending where quasi-Confederate flags were used and in some shows the South won the battle? It was considered fun and when the Union and Confederate leaders were arm in arm, all’s well that ends well. Today it would never fly, and the kids who march would probably refuse to do the show.

I don’t think sexual orientation and identity will be the only focus or perhaps even major focus of this committee. Other corps have issued similar statements since the death of George Floyd and the unrest that has followed. Earlier this week Spirit of Atlanta issued a statement apologizing for past shows that have appeared to some as romanticizing a South is viewed as racist. There are also corps today that are racially diverse that have some serious racial issues in their past, especially those with long histories. If anyone would be aware of the importance of addressing racial issues, it is Denise Bonfiglio. Her father was a sticker that anyone who wanted to march and could should be allowed the opportunity to do so at a time welcome was not on the doormat of other corps. She probably learned from example.

she certainly does, and gets paid pretty well for it compared to our friends/family, lol. good for her, and good for the people it brings joy to. i'll always agree that it does nothing but help dci and the marching arts.

I’m reading it as the corps will not put up with exclusive or bullying behavior by any individual member. That’s not being “woke” that’s saying they’re not going to put up with anyone’s crap that could harm another member or the corps itself. Had the same thing where I worked and so do many other places. And in this overly legalese world you have to put down in writing what you wouldn’t put up with. Otherwise some clod will use it as a loophole “you didn’t tell me that...”

Seriously the article says that Cadets will try to make sure everyone feels a part of the corps (aka included) and only thing you get is sexual orientation. I read it as checking that no one is shunned, threatened, harassed, etc, etc for any reason.

Thanks for sharing that. For some reason, I feel like it might have been Kris that taught at Scenic City although he lived in NJ so I'm not sure. I can post the trumpet pages from the yearbook to help figure it out!

July 4, 2002, 12:07am ET - Tour Day 42 Portsmouth, RI The past two days have been, by far, the hottest of the summer so far. It got to over 100 with the heat index and we were out working in it. Last night it paid off with a great performance in Bridgeport, Connecticut, but tonight we had a weak showing in Bristol, Rhode Island. Our show last night was good enough to win percussion and general effect visual and put us within two points of the Blue Devils. My focus is on Friday night when we were supposed to have a free night at Hersheypark. I made plans to meet Megan (girlfriend) there to spend the night at the park together. My mother even went to the trouble of getting a hotel room and setting everything up, but now we are no longer taking the free night in Hersey. So I can’t even tell Megan about the change until tomorrow night because she’s not back from her cruise yet. I’m pretty disappointed about the change, but we’ll work through it. Bridgeport Blue Devils - 82.0 - all captions Crossmen - 80.05 Boston Crusaders - 77.45 Spirit of Atlanta - 74.25 Carolina Crown - 72.35 Kiwanis Kavaliers - 64.85 Magic of Orlando - 77.8 Bristol The Cadets - 84.5 - all captions Blue Devils - 82.1 Crossmen - 78.15 Boston Crusaders - 76.4 Bluecoats - 75.55 Carolina Crown - 73.6 Spirit of Atlanta - 72.4 Kiwanis Kavaliers - 61.75 (Next post is July 5.)

And ban those super-expensive b-flat instruments and go back to the ultra-economic G bugles. There. I just saved the activity! 🤣

That stroganoff might have given them that extra tenth of a point that they needed. 😉 Kidding. Kidding. Great story though.