Michael Boo Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 That said, it is inconceivable that one can then make a claim that DCI has MORE diversity than other youth groups, sports, other enterprises, etc when half the population is excluded from membership to two of DCI's organization's charter member Corps. Corps that discriminate on gender, are not inclusionary, they are, in fact, exclusionary. Thus, there can be no legitimate claim of " diversity ". ... I haven't heard anyone in an official capacity make the claim that DCI corps have MORE diversity than other youth groups, but I do believe they have equal diversity among all the units as a whole. If a female wants to march in a drum corps, there are plenty of opportunities. How many threads have we had lately that have discussed the gender question among Madison Scouts and The Cavaliers? Is it June yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 ok, i'll throw a spark on the fire.... does DCI do anything to try and recruit minorities? knowing what I do about education and disadvantaged schools, those types of place are the kinds of school that really, music is 4th class, if it even exists. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scerpella Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Blue Stars had a black drum major in 76. He's still involved as an alumni. I think he may have posted about his experiences here. I'm sure I was naive back then but I never thought anything one way or the other about it. Corps from Chicago, Milw, Madison etc all had black members. That was Don Fitzgerald. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 (edited) I haven't heard anyone in an official capacity make the claim that DCI corps have MORE diversity than other youth groups, but I do believe they have equal diversity among all the units as a whole. If a female wants to march in a drum corps, there are plenty of opportunities. How many threads have we had lately that have discussed the gender question among Madison Scouts and The Cavaliers? Is it June yet? Well, I wasn't responding to ( as you said ) " to anyone in an official capacity make a claim of MORE diversity. I responded to the OP that created this thread.... in his 3rd paragraph of his introductory comments..... ( quote ) " I figured maybe Drum Corps didn't use to be as diverse as it is today ". So I took the liberty to point out that Drum Corps is not more diverse than earlier periods..... and pointed out reasons for suck lack of advances in the diversity realm. I used The Cavaliers and the Madison Scouts as 2 units that are exclusionary to females to bolster the position that DCI has not changed much at all in the " diversity " area, and why Blacks participate in Drum Corps today at much smaller percentage numbers than in earlier eras. The comments were made to enlighten the OP that his belief that Drum Corps is more diverse today than in earlier eras is really an incorrect assumption and perception. Edited February 9, 2010 by BRASSO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abbevillekid26 Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 2 out of 24 (?) world class corps, plus open class, being restricted to females isn't exactly what I would use to call the organization (DCI) "exclusionary." You can't really force diversity. It doesn't matter if DCI "recruits" in areas with large amounts of minorities because sadly those types of areas, like Detroit and Flint, don't usually have the kind of money to do something like this. I've thought about how cool it'd be to start a corps in my home town though, it'd definitely be quite diverse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Well, I wasn't responding to ( as you said ) " to anyone in an official capacity make a claim of MORE diversity.I responded to the OP that created this thread.... in his 3rd paragraph of his introductory comments..... ( quote ) " I figured maybe Drum Corps didn't use to be as diverse as it is today ". So I took the liberty to point out that Drum Corps is not more diverse than earlier periods..... and pointed out reasons for suck lack of advances in the diversity realm. I used The Cavaliers and the Madison Scouts as 2 units that are exclusionary to females to bolster the position that DCI has not changed much at all in the " diversity " area, and why Blacks participate in Drum Corps today at much smaller percentage numbers than in earlier eras. The comments were made to enlighten the OP that his belief that Drum Corps is more diverse today than in earlier eras is really an incorrect assumption and perception. I thank you for pointing that out and for your polite response. I must admit I missed what you were referring to in the original post. I've never seen any demographic study that has analyzed ethnic composition of memberships. To make a comparison, though, I guess we would have to have such a study from a much earlier period. It would be interesting to know, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornsUp Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Almost every Kiltie with a Scottish last name was black. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 (edited) 2 out of 24 (?) world class corps, plus open class, being restricted to females isn't exactly what I would use to call the organization (DCI) "exclusionary." You can't really force diversity. It doesn't matter if DCI "recruits" in areas with large amounts of minorities because sadly those types of areas, like Detroit and Flint, don't usually have the kind of money to do something like this. I've thought about how cool it'd be to start a corps in my home town though, it'd definitely be quite diverse. If the Rotary Club had 30 clubs and 2 of them excluded females, then " yes" I think we could still say that The Rotary Club was an exclusionary organization, and had not advanced all that much in the " diversity " area. If we had 30 schools in a school district with 2 of those schools exclusionary of blacks where the schools really made it clear that the blacks could come, but they were not really welcomed in numbers, would we say that the schools in that school district support and promote " diversity " ? I don't think that school district could make that claim, frankly. Edited February 9, 2010 by BRASSO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cop Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 If the Rotary Club had 30 clubs and 2 of them excluded females, then " yes" I think we could still say that The Rotary Club was an exclusionary organization, and had not advanced all that much in the " diversity " area.If we had 30 schools in a school district with 2 of them exclusionary of blacks who really made it clear that they could come, but were not really welcomed in numbers, would we say that the schools in that school district support and promote " diversity " ? I don't think that district could make that claim, frankly. non co-ed schools..... normal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomPeashey Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 It is good for especially the younger people to realize that - even though we may have a black president now - it was only a few short years ago that things were very much different. I can only speak from the 50's on, but drum corps as I knew it was pretty much color blind. (don't bother arguing that there was 1 or 2 segregated corps - there was but they were the exception) The night of the riots in Rochester NY 1965, Crusaders were in Hamburg NY. We were told at the show that the city had exploded and the sheriff had been killed and the national guard had taken over - it was NOT pretty. We were also told we could not go home that the thruway exits were closed and we would NOT be allowed in. We had a fair number of black members - I would say more than most corps at the time and believe me, many lived in "danger zones" and these guys had to get home to their families... our cars were in Charlotte at the beach behind Grey Knight's post which meant we had to go through the worst of it just to get to our cars. We met at the party after the show in Hamburg and voted as a corps to go home... we loaded the buses and headed for Rochester arriving about 3AM... The national guardsmen and state police tried to turn us around and send us back... In one of his finer moments, Vince Bruni held his ground and basically told the law that his men needed to get home to their families - PERIOD and if they wanted to stop us they would ahve to use force right there at the thruway exit. He ignored the cops and left them scratching their heads as our buses headed for the north side - ignoring the road blocks. How this pulled our corps together was amazing and may have even given us that little bit of extra something that made that a great corps in a national championship season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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