Is classical music racist?

About a month ago I was sent an article entitled “It’s Time To Let Classical Music Die” on New MusicUSA. In essence, the article posits that classical music, due to its establishment in “white” and mostly “male” enclaves is inherently racist and should be allowed to wither on the vine. Here’s a sample:

[…] Western classical music is not about culture. It’s about whiteness. It’s a combination of European traditions which serve the specious belief that whiteness has a culture—one that is superior to all others. Its main purpose is to be a cultural anchor for the myth of white supremacy. In that regard, people of color can never truly be pioneers of Western classical music. The best we can be are exotic guests: entertainment for the white audiences and an example of how Western classical music is more elite than the cultures of people of color. […]

I left a comment on the site but the editors obviously did not like what I wrote so I am republishing it here, with minor changes.

As someone who has been a listener and fan of classical music for most of my life, and who has witnessed a flowering of real multi-cultural appreciation of classical music, I think it is a ridiculous and arrogant conceit to believe that classical music can be pigeon-holed into politically correct categories that are to be judged by some racial/color/gender formula known and promulgated only by a few. Classical music suffered enough in the twentieth century with dodecaphonism and academe’s highly political insistence that all music should be twelve-tone. Isn’t it enough that two generations of composers wrote utter crap to obey their masters in a hare-brained attempt to be in sync with the ideas that were prevalent? Ladies and gentlemen, this is nothing but post-modern bovine excrement, a ridiculous circular firing squad that aims, whether intended or not, to exclude and not to include.

Most of the folks who responded positively to this tripe are totally missing the point. The only color that matters is the ink on the staff paper. Music is outside of time, it’s outside of race. It is… music. That’s it.

Beethoven has been dead for 192 years. All that is left of him are notes on staff paper, played and interpreted by other musicians. The notes don’t yell, I’M WHITE! or I’M BLACK! or I’M LGBT! or I’M FROM [insert favorite marginalized group here]! Should we extend the writer’s logic to jazz and exclude all white performers and composers since Jazz was an art form invented by blacks? Or the Blues?

For heaven’s sake, it’s just music! It is either good music or bad. It is universal! Just listen to it and enjoy it without the pseudo-intellectual sturm und drang. Whether it’s Mozart, or Pärt, or Joplin, or Saumell, or Takemitsu, or Shankar. (See what I did there?)

I’ll continue listening and admiring the greatest art form man has ever created, thank you very much. I’ll pass on the angst.