drumcat Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 It's not a dead argument. No, there is no discrimination (that anyone is aware of), but the ethnic diversity in drum corps is (probably) not reflective of the diversity in the rest of the country. That's not true. Two prominent corps do actively discriminate. Let's not forget this. We all seem to be ok with it, but they do. Don't gloss over that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitedawn Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 No, there is no discrimination (that anyone is aware of), but the ethnic diversity in drum corps is (probably) not reflective of the diversity in the rest of the country. yeah, whites are clearly over-represented in big-league drum corps. on the other side of the spectrum, based on my own first-hand observations, homosexuals are considerably more prevalent in drum corps than in society in general. we are winning some battles, diversity-wise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madscout96 Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Diversity is an economic issue in drum corps? I don't think so.If it were, then back in the day, when corps were acoustic, when tympanis were breaking backs, when 1,000 corps crisscrossed the local, micro-regional, geographically proximate area, when hundreds of thousands of fans crammed into Olympic Stadium for finals, the spectrum of society would have comprised the corps we remember so fondly. Not the 92% whites we're talking about today because drum corps was inexpensive and local then. The affordable and local drum corps of the past should have attracted people of every race, right? No. Didn't happen. Drum corps was every bit as white 30 years ago as it was today because it's not about economics (or location) alone. HH There's some truth to this. However, I seem to remember quite a few div. II or III corps back in the 90's (back when there were still tons of corps all over the country) that were made up mostly of minorities. Prince Hall Lancers and Memorial Lancers from St. Louis, Joliet Kingsmen, Kips Bay Knight Club from the Bronx (featured in Alanis Morissette's "One Hand In My Pocket" video), Cadets of NYC, etc. Some of these corps disappeared with the rest of the corps of their size for the same reasons. DCI kept getting more expensive to participate in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madscout96 Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 [Tell you what, though, George: drop the fees down to about 250 dollars for a Cadets "Cadet" corps, go into inner city Philadelphia and get some kids together and give them some drum line equipment (get Yamaha, etc to donate it) and create a few lines to compete against each other regionally. There's your entry point into the multicultural world of today...which sounds suprisingly like the entry point many, many years ago people used to get kids off the street and into a little thing called drum corps. Funny, no? I won't hold my breath to see that happen, though. This actually already exists all over the country. It's called high school band, and it's the reason that we no longer need the VFW and the American Legion and the CYO to sponsor this activity. You may not prefer the fact that instrumentation is not the same in this activity that it was in the 1960's drum corps, but the goal is just the same. What Bawker said... the schools that don't have a band program. And also what about the high schools that do have a band program but it STILL costs $1000 to be in? Plymouth-Canton asks their kids to pay about that much to be in their band. And this is a marching band that is made up of students from 3 separate schools!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glory Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 on the other side of the spectrum, based on my own first-hand observations, homosexuals are considerably more prevalent in drum corps than in society in general. Okay history buffs, was this true a generation ago too? HH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordsterr Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 ...then why are there posts in this thread that lament the lack of a middle or high school music program (especially in inner cities)? It is indeed true that there are places where the school board has not done it's job. Or the people in town did not pass a levy. It is a rotten thing when students don't get the things they need including textbooks and safe buildings. This exact issue of unequal funding has been in front of the Ohio Supreme Court (who abrogated their responsibilites) and is now one of the main things our governpr is working on. Nevertheless, there are far more public and private music programs all over this country than there were ever drum corps. Even with all that there is to compete for the time of the young people, there are far more competitive marching bands than there were ever corps. That doesn't count the places where directors choose not to compete with marching band ( a valid educational choice) and places where the choice is not to march at all. There are hundreds of thousands of public and private school students studying band, orchestra and chorus all over this country. But let's look seriouslt at the competitive marching band. An average group may have rehearsals during the week, might do 4 or 5 contests over the season and may go to a larger regional or national event every now and then. This is exactly what drum corps was in that golden age that people talk about when drum corps was for "keeping kids off the streets." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madscout96 Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 That's not true. Two prominent corps do actively discriminate. Let's not forget this. We all seem to be ok with it, but they do. Don't gloss over that. Why do you see this as a problem? Honestly, why? Being in an single gender environment, whether it be a school, drum corps, summer camp, sports team, whatever, is a different experience than that of being in a co-ed environment. It has value. So what's your problem with it? Why do you think that that type of experience should not be offered anymore? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Um...I'd try the 2000+ dollar tuition for the top units first before we start to deride "tradition". I agree. I don't think the uniforms or the "military tradition" of drum corps has anything to do with any perceived lack of diversity. The "military tradition" of the U.S. military does not seem to have kept minorities from signing up to join one of the U.S. armed forces. Fran Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meaghatron Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 And I happen to think it's funny that everyone assumes to some degree that minorities are all either poor, inner-city, or planning to attend an HBCU school.There are plenty of minorities who do just fine thankyouverymuch. It may even be germain that minorities who *could* be doing drum corps are choosing *not* to do drum corps. We can play "follow the demographics" all day, but the point still remains that drum corps as an overall activity deserves examination, and the discussion deserves to not be based around "woe-is-me" income-to-minority, where-we-live stereotyping. I know minorities who aren't poor, inner-city, or planning to attend HBCU. Some are doctors and dentists, with children who attend wealthy private schools. For this topic, I assumed we were specifically talking about those who ARE inner-city and/or poor. I apologize for the confusion, or if you assumed I was painting a wide brush over all minorities. Besides the factors mentioned in my previous post, I would add that band isn't really seen as the popular activity. Not to mention band programs that have to compete with the athletic extracurricular activities. In my MS/HS school, kids who were in band in late elementary often went on to do sports in MS/HS. It was hard to keep them in band, because it isn't considered the "cool" thing to do. These kids are white, black, Hispanic, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jared_mello Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Um...I'd try the 2000+ dollar tuition for the top units first before we start to deride "tradition".Couple that money with the fact that most music education/performance majors (aside from those at historically black colleges and universities) are, indeed, white...and, well, there you go. It is what it is, and no amount of tweaking the music, uniforms or "tradition" is going to make DCI or the Cadets (or any other corps) a pan-cultural paean to the world community. Tell you what, though, George: drop the fees down to about 250 dollars for a Cadets "Cadet" corps, go into inner city Philadelphia and get some kids together and give them some drum line equipment (get Yamaha, etc to donate it) and create a few lines to compete against each other regionally. There's your entry point into the multicultural world of today...which sounds suprisingly like the entry point many, many years ago people used to get kids off the street and into a little thing called drum corps. Funny, no? I won't hold my breath to see that happen, though. seriously. well over $2000, and he wonders about the demographic that drum corps caters to? what a joke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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