Philip Ewell & Julio Mendívil: Musicology’s White Racial Frame

VIENNA, AUSTRIA: Imagine you’re walking down the hall of a prestigious university. Your steps betray the confidence of having earned it all: a doctorate, a high-ranking place in the scholarly paper citation index and, recently, that university’s chair of musicology.

As you arrive at your office door, a man runs up to you. He notifies you that a drink was spilled down the hall and needs to be cleaned up. You look at him quizzically and, unconsciously pointing out your non-whiteness, he responds, aren’t you the janitor?

Such a situation may sound unusual - even comical – yet is a common experience among non-white academics.

Musicologists Philip Ewell (Hunter College) and Julio Mendívil (University of Vienna) join us to present a phenomenon of racism that doesn’t stop at a non-white professor’s office door.