When liberals are through with Western Civilization, not one stone shall be left upon another. That is, they will annihilate it completely. Even classical music has been slated for destruction in the name of racial equity.

Blind auditions were instituted to protect against discrimination, or to put it more accurately, to protect against talent-deprived musicians of politically preferred pigmentation bullying their way onto orchestras with allegations of discrimination. Musicians are chosen strictly on the basis of their performance by people unaware of their race or gender. As anyone but a liberal would predict, this has had the same effect as the standardized tests that are currently getting canceled.

Merit discriminates against groups favored by leftists when it comes to classical music. Whites and Asians excel at it. As a rule, others don’t. Mediocrity is not good enough; you need extraordinary talent to perform great music.

So the New York Times demands we do away with blind auditions and recruit musicians explicitly on the basis of race rather than musical ability:

If the musicians onstage are going to better reflect the diversity of the communities they serve, the audition process has to be altered to take into fuller account artists’ backgrounds and experiences. Removing the screen [i.e., ending blind auditions] is a crucial step.

Actually, orchestras do reflect the community they serve — namely, people who like classical music. When you go to the symphony, you don’t see many black faces on the stage, or in the audience either.

It’s one thing to overrepresent blacks in TV commercials. All they have to do is look smugly pleased with themselves. Performing classical music requires a special gift that is not equally distributed among identity groups.

As noted at Legal Insurrection,

Ending “blind auditions” hurts people who otherwise would have been chosen based on the quality of their music, or in other contexts, their academic performance on standardized tests and other objective measurements. “Equity” is not a victimless crime.

Superior musicians sidelined because they don’t have the politically correct skin color won’t be the only victims. The audience will suffer too. Then, when classical music withers because social engineers won’t permit orchestras to be staffed based on competence rather than Cultural Marxism, the whole culture will suffer.

On a tip from Dragon’s Lair.