Let It Burn!

I don’t Mourn the Gutting of the Washington Post’s Classical Music Desk

The outrage over the dismantling of the Washington Post’s classical music coverage is telling — not because it signals a loss to the art form, but because it reveals who the art form is meant to serve.

For decades, the Post’s classical criticism reflected a narrow, white perspective while operating in Chocolate City. Mot once did the paper deem it necessary to include a full-time Black classical music critic at its desk. Not one. The assumption was clear: white coverage was enough.

It’s not.

Classical music criticism isn’t neutral. Critics don’t merely describe performances; they shape reputations, legitimize careers, and determine whose work is taken seriously. When that power is concentrated almost exclusively in white hands, Black artists pay the price — often quietly, often without recourse.

I know this because I’ve experienced it. When Brown University’s racist firing of me as their only Black faculty member made international news, not a single classical critic saw fit to cover it, in fact, Anne Midgette, their longtime classical music critic, discouraged it. Yet similar incidents involving white artists routinely receive attention, framing, and sympathy. Silence, too, is editorial choice — and silence has consequences.

This is not about individual malice or personal virtue. It’s about structure and obstruction. White-led cultural…