Beauty is also the Beast

During the last five years I’ve come to know many musicians who are not just masters of their trade but also wonderful human beings. I’ve also been disappointed to discover that a few of my artistic idols have feet of clay. Yet, I’ve continued to admire them on the basis of their work rather than their personality. This is not always easy.

Last Sunday, as I read Paquito D’Rivera’s eulogy to Jacques Braunstein, a Venezuelan musician that D’Rivera dubbed the father of Venezuelan jazz, I was aghast at his denigration of president Hugo Chavez by referring to him as “ese orangután ridículo que ahora desgobierna la tierra de Aldemaro, de Lauro y de Rómulo Gallegos.” [That ridiculous orangutan that misgoverns the land of Aldemaro, Lauro, and Rómulo Gallegos.] (Latin Beat Magazine, December 2009, News Section) This racist comment took me by surprise and my first thought was “I’ll never buy any more CDs nor attend any performances by him.” Then I thought that this was another case of an idol with feet of clay, an instance in which it was important, although difficult, to separate the person from the artist.

I remember when, during his speech on race, Obama talked about how he could not disown his grandmother despite her prejudice. I think his example was meant to suggest that even good persons can be racist or engage in racist thinking as a result of cultural socialization. D'Rivera’s comparison seems to be one of those cases. I'm not accusing him of being racist. He just need to be told that his chosen metaphor is racist, even if he did not intend it that way.

How do we explain the dissonance between a statement and an attitude? More often than not, racist notions become so ingrained and generalized, that they lose their racist connotation at face value. As a result, people use them without much awareness or realization of what they are doing. Look at Rafael Hernández, the famous Puerto Rican composer, a black man, talking about the "negra maldad" [black malice] of the tyrant in his song “Lamento Borincano.” We have grown so used to associate evil with darkness, that we don't stop to even think how the adjective may be ultimately racist. Historically, we have come to associate, instinctively, darkness with disaster and wrongdoing (e.g. references to "black Friday," "dark episode," "dark motives," etc.). And yet, so many wonderful things happen only in the darkness! (music, movies, sex, sleep, dreams, etc).

The use of "orangutan" as an epithet against Chávez, uncritically reflects the prejudice inculcated by society against primates as lowly creatures. It also reflects an association between race and individual attributes. If Chavez were white his detractors would not call him "El Mono" and I doubt that D'Rivera would have called him "orangutan." In this case, the association between race and low character can be detected by inference but it is there. And that type of association is the essence of racism; it matters little if the racist comment is proffered by a good person but it does matter: a good person should not make racist statements; on the other hand, one would hope that a good person would be open to criticism and be wise enough to acknowledge his/her fault and do something about it.

I don't doubt that D'Rivera is a good person, just like my grandmother was saintly (in my biased opinion), and yet, would say things like "esa señora es negra pero tiene el alma blanca” [That woman may be black but her soul is white]. No one is exempt from prejudice. But some of us are more a product of our cultural socialization than others. The key to freedom from conventional wisdom is self-awareness, openness to criticism, and willingness to change.

To say that the person is not the same as the artist is to suggest that it is possible to embrace the artist’s work no matter how horrible he/she may be as an individual. Which means that whether D'Rivera is racist or not is irrelevant to my appreciation of his music. The distinction is difficult but not impossible. This may be hard to accept but sometimes beauty is also the beast.