New York & New Orleans: A Cross-cultural Analysis of Women in Jazz

Race, Jazz, and Digital Humanities

In our modern society, race and the issues stemming from it are, unfortunately, as pervasive as they’ve ever been. We objectively categorize people based on the color of skin, and treat it as a distinguishing feature in labelling these individuals: you “are” one race, and “are not” the others. Using race in this way provides us a convenient, defining baseline for all individuals from which we have developed pre drawn conclusions about their characters, cultures, and ideologies. Yet, physiological appearances aside, there is no scientific basis for our broad definitions of race. Michael Yudell, a public health professor, notes that race is, simply put, a “crude concept” that has a “social meaning, [but] interferes in the scientific understanding of human genetic diversity.” Genetically speaking, 99.9% of the human genome is common across the entire population, and of that remaining 0.1% variability, there is “no gene or cluster of genes” that specifically codes for what we define as race; no commonalities exist for all persons that we so readily group together (Onwuachi-Willig, 2015). From this, it seems blasphemous to consider the notion of race as a biological trait; rather, it is clearly a construct that we have developed socially.
But how have we developed these boundaries, and why do we continually allow them to carry overbearing weight in our characterizations? Omi and Winant (1986) posit that this “racialization” has been an ongoing, constantly evolving process that has stemmed “from the struggles of competing political projects and ideas seeking to articulate similar elements differently.” We have constructed the notion of race from “institutional and structural features” in our society that have generated its definition as a “social, cultural, and political category,” (1986) yet it is often culture that falls by the wayside as a result of this. For instance, various African cultures are improperly labelled as “black,” leaving their cultural differences oft-ignored in favor of these primitive designations. Our inability to recognize our own social racialization has fed our ignorance for others’ ways of life and the inherent differences that undoubtedly exist within these groupings, and this issue’s presence is no less felt in the jazz realm or in that of digital humanities. Etta Jones discussed issues of race in an interview with Monk Rowe:

Race & Jazz

It can be argued that this classification system that we have derived, and the subsequent racial tensions it has produced, perhaps played a role in the early development of jazz music. From its roots in New Orleans, to the renaissance in Harlem, and everywhere in between, the history of jazz is inherently “black,” arising from racial divides between groups. In New Orleans, tensions between both slaves and their masters, as well as between blacks and Creoles, spawned the need for an outlet for individual expression (Marty, 2010). Moving north, racial composition and divisions created essentially two separate “Harlems,” only furthering this desire for an alternative means of creative articulation. Theologian James Cone most aptly summarizes jazz in its infancy as “an artistic rebellion against the humiliating deadness of western culture... through song,” creating “a new political consciousness, … one antithetical to the values of white society.” Even as the years have passed and the style of jazz has adapted to the ever-changing social and political landscape, it has maintained its relevance as a call for social reform. In the 20s, it evolved to an amalgamation of “ragtime, blues, and New Orleans parade music” (Haber, 2006) through the music of greats such as Armstrong, Ellington, and Basie that drew on certain European traits while still holding true to the emotions of old. The invention of the radio brought about a new form of musical segregation in the 1930s, in which black musicians found themselves competing with whites, once again, for airplay and recognition in the industry (Marty, 2010). From the 40s through the post-WWII economic upswing, we see the rise of different forms of jazz such as swing and Charlie Parker’s bebop, paying tribute to the style’s African roots while still conveying the frustration felt by so many concerning the social outlook of the era (Haber). Certainly jazz’s evolution has resulted in an expansion that now includes musicians and artists of varying race and cultural origins, yet the inherent tensions remain constant in the face of change, particularly the technological change and advancements sweeping our current generation. 

Race & DH

These advances, though an effort to improve the lives of the many, do little to eliminate the “covert racism” inherent in fields such as the digital humanities (McPherson, 2012). In her work, McPherson laments the need for redesign, or innovation, of our current technological systems, so that they no longer solely promote race in these “narrow registers.” (McPherson) Stemming from our “post-WWII computational culture,” the current structure of web-based information and the methods by which it is presented serves only to further “underwrite the ease with which we partition off our considerations of race” in our digital studies (McPherson). Too often is our consideration of racial issues and divides kept so blatantly separated from technological innovation and development, attracting very different audiences and largely remaining distinct from one another in scope. The technological desire for “modularity,” as McPherson describes it, has only furthered this divide; where the web is often thought of as a blank canvas that promotes freedom of expression, in reality it serves to only strengthen this singular, standardized view (McPherson). Still, despite these inherent structures, McPherson notes that they are not so much “intentional” as they are “systemic.” Nonetheless, the need for “common languages that link the study of code and culture” (McPherson) are necessary now more than ever, particularly if we are to move from our covertly racist tendencies of early technologies such as UNIX and move towards a more cohesive & inclusive study of the humanities, both scholarly and digital.

This page references: