Happy Birthday, Ludwig — try to hang on until this madness passes
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George Leef: No performer or theorist is safe from the progressive mob.
In a pair of cases, music educators have been subjected to academic “herd culling,” as one administrator honestly described his efforts at ridding his school of unwanted faculty members. In both instances, professors were attacked simply because they wrote things that upset some of the irritable “progressives” on campus.
…. The other music-related case involves Professor Timothy Jackson of the University of North Texas (UNT). His case erupted in 2019 when, as editor of UNT’s Journal of Schenkerian Studies(JSS), he took issue with the argument of another music professor, Philip Ewell, that the field of classical music was excessively “white” and that the Austrian musicologist Heinrich Schenker (for whom the journal is named) was a racist.
Professor Jackson regarded those arguments as unfounded and decided to devote the next issue of JSS to a free-wheeling discussion of Ewell’s position. Jackson included some essays supporting Ewell and several opposing him, including his own contribution to the symposium. Jackson argued that the relative paucity of minority students in music-theory programs is due to the fact that classical music is seldom heard in their households, not to any malevolent design. He also disputed the claim that Schenker was a racist.
…. Almost immediately after the publication of the JSS symposium, a group of UNT graduate students published a letter denouncing Jackson for his own “racism” in taking issue with Ewell. The students demanded Jackson’s termination. Several of his faculty colleagues piled on, and the UNT administration sided with the mob calling for Jackson to be punished. It launched an “investigation” into JSS, aiming to find abuses, and it removed Jackson from his position as editor. Moreover, he was banned from participation in committee work in his department.
….. In sum, the university retaliated against Jackson for having spoken his mind on an academic question. Feeling that his rights had been violated, Jackson filed suit in federal court. The case has been in litigation since 2019, and you can read his complaint here. His suit named several UNT officials as defendants, including members of the Board of Regents.
…. The case is still ongoing, but a recent decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for the suit to proceed against all the defendants, including the Board of Regents members. As we read in this Legal Insurrection article, the court brushed aside the “qualified immunity” defense that the defendants raised, meaning that they could be held personally accountable for damages if Jackson prevails.
Cornell law professor William Jacobson, in the above article, provides this nutshell view of the suit:
Professor Jackson’s case was particularly illustrative of the mania that swept academia, where not pledging allegiance to every last dogma was viewed as heresy. Jackson’s alleged offense was disputing claims that a noted musical theorist was racist. That’s it. Disagreeing was enough to whip up the academic mob.
Both the Mattson and Jackson cases show how eager many students, faculty members, and administrators are to drive away anyone who deviates from “progressive” orthodoxy in any way. Intolerance and groupthink have replaced civil debate. Fortunately, the law still upholds the rights of those who are targeted for elimination, and if in the Jackson case the defendants are held personally liable for their conduct, that would set a monumentally important precedent.
