60 Minutes took aim President Trump’s war on diversity, equity and inclusion Sunday by focusing on the collateral damage of his controversial executive order — a group of young Black, Hispanic, Indian and Asian musicians who were denied the chance to play with the U.S. Marine Band this year.
Last year, the band — founded in 1798 and nicknamed the “President’s Own” by Thomas Jefferson — collaborated with a Chicago-based nonprofit that supports student musicians of color by giving them a chance to audition for the orchestra.
The plan was for this select group of youths to perform with their adult counterparts at a concert in May, according to the report by Scott Pelley. But Trump’s executive order against diversity programs forced them to scuttle the performance — depriving the youths of the unique opportunity to play with the Marines.
“If we’re a society that’s suppressing art, we’re a society that is afraid of what it might reveal about itself. If we’re suppressing music, we’re suppressing emotions, we’re suppressing expression, we’re suppressing vulnerability, we’re suppressing the very essence of what makes us human,” said Rishab Jain, an 18-year-old, Harvard-bound Indian American who was among the 30 students selected to play. “We are devaluing our own humanity. We are degrading our own humanity.”
Jain was among almost 60 students nationwide who responded to the audition call from Equity Arc, the nonprofit that worked with the Marine band. Equity Arc was formed to help boost diversity in American orchestras, 80% of which are white, 11% are Asian, 5% are Hispanic and only 2% are Black.
Pelley reported that the Marine Band’s commanding officer wrote Equity Arc’s Stan Thompson to say “as long as the executive order is in place, we will not be able to reschedule.” So 60 Minutes — whose parent company announced last month that it was rolling back some of its own DEI policies — decided to stage its own concert, instead.
The CBS newsmagazine gathered the youths along with retired musicians from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Westpoint, the Naval Academy and the Marines to perform at a concert hall rented by Equity Arc. Sunday’s episode showed the orchestra playing “Gallop” by Dimitri Shostakovich under the leadership of conductor Rodney Dorsey of Florida State University.
“I challenge anyone, literally, anyone to come to me and say by having this concert does damage to the United States,” said John Abbracciamento, a retired trumpet player from the Marine Band who volunteered to play with the youths. “It doesn’t. It brings out the best of us.”
Their full concert can be found here.
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