September 15, 2020

"The Columbia University Marching Band announced Saturday it would dissolve due to intrinsic, irreparable damage caused by the club’s structure, which was 'founded on the basis of racism' and 'cultural oppression.'"

The Daily Caller reports.
Following a Sept. 12 meeting to discuss anonymous postings that alleged the band’s involvement in sexual misconduct, assault and racism, among other things, the band “unanimously and enthusiastically decided to dissolve” after 116 years of performance, according to the band’s statement Monday.

“The Columbia University Marching Band apologizes for insult and injury victims have experienced as a result of actions perpetrated in its name,” the statement continues. “The Band has maintained a club structure founded on the basis of racism, cultural oppression, misogyny, and sexual harassment.”

Despite reform efforts, the band found it “impossible to reform an organization so grounded in prejudiced culture and traditions.”

123 comments:

Expat(ish) said...

Pass the popcorn.

Call me when you grow up.

-XC

RK said...

The Columbia Journalism School dissolves next due to its foundation of teaching fake news and journo-fraud. (Okay, that's wishful thinking on my part.)

JAORE said...

Oddly enough I find it “impossible to [admire] an organization so grounded in [the need to destroy culture and traditions” in the name of fake wokeness.

RK said...

Not enough black kids at Columbia want to be in the marching band, I guess.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the band went woke a few years ago and entered a downward spiral of funding cuts and friction. The wokers decided it wasn't woking fast enough and canceled themselves. Their Law School and J school should follow suit.

Drago said...

All universities run by democrats, with their undeniable history of oppression of africans as well as the fact that the Nazi's themselves used the democrat party laws of Jim Crow and segregation as the very basis of their Nuremburg laws used to oppress German Jews, should be immediately torn down.

We owe it to our people and to future generations.

rehajm said...

It's like that zombie tag- you run around trying not to get killed but then you get killed but you're still standing, pretty much intact.

Soon there's enough zombies to get the band back together...

Jason said...

Progtards ruin everything they touch.

Nonapod said...

It seems like everyone, every organization, every single entity, every atom and elementary particle has been determined to be fundamentally and systemically racist. Perhaps we've reached a level of absurdity that at some point it will loop back around to nothing being racist. We've lowered the threshold for what's racist to such a low point that it will render the term truly meaningless.

Charlie Eklund said...

We sure do seem to be living during one of history’s rare Idiot Extravaganzas. How long do those typically last?

stutefish said...

"Unanimously and enthusiastically"?

Am I the only one who finds it implausible that a quorum of voting club members all unanimously and enthusiastically agree with these propositions?

This reads like invasion of the body snatchers. Or, as Iowahawk put it:

1. Identify a respected institution.
2. kill it.
3. gut it.
4. wear its carcass as a skin suit, while demanding respect.

Yancey Ward said...

Perhaps the University itself should dissolve. They are clearly failing their students according to this story.

stlcdr said...

This is a marching band, right?

Yancey Ward said...

Also, perhaps the Democratic Party also needs to dissolve- no better case can be made against a long term organization for racism than the Democratic Party, right?

Jamie said...

Kids are so... What do I even want to say about this? This response is the opposite of maturity. Maturity requires facing facts, looking for solutions to problems, and attempting to implement those solutions - and is iterative: try, try again. Immaturity is seeing a problem, and believing with all your heart that closing your eyes (or, for instance, testing down the statue) will make the problem go away.

To say nothing of whether the "problematic" history of a marching band constitutes an actual problem in the here-and-now.

Sebastian said...

"The Band has maintained a club structure founded on the basis of racism, cultural oppression, misogyny, and sexual harassment.” Despite reform efforts, the band found it “impossible to reform an organization so grounded in prejudiced culture and traditions.”

Founded on? Grounded in? How'd they do that?

RNB said...

Why do I sense an enormous '/sarc' tag here?

Ampersand said...

Ah. The final solution - Cultural Suicide.

PM said...

It's really the only solution. Music never solved anything.

David-2 said...

This isn't such a bad idea! Like all cool cultural ideas these days it will flow quickly to government, especially with the help of those nice, smart, helpful critical race theory training sessions - I hope! Starting with the Department of Education and the CDC, at the federal level. Plus all "public health departments" at the state and local levels - they're already colonized so it should be pretty quick there!

mikesixes said...

Well....bye.

Big Mike said...

Now do the same to the university as a whole.

J Melcher said...

One can only infer that systemic racist cultural mechanisms such as: voting, majority rule, enforcement of all rules on all members without fear or favor, written rules, due process,... Were simply unacceptable.

hombre said...

Prog self-immolation. I like it!

rhhardin said...

Sex is the whole reason to join the band.

YoungHegelian said...

The New Maoists claim another victim.

Ambrose said...

Seventy six trombones led the big parade,
With a hundred & ten cornets close at hand.
....

Rory said...

If I had been marching for 116 years, I'd be tired, too.

n.n said...

For their "alleged involvement" in diversity rackets. So, basically, their contemporaries are spreading blood libels about people without a voice, who cannot stand for themselves, who will be denied due process, for present and immediate gain. The very model of a Pro-Choice quasi-religion ("ethics").

Fernandinande said...

"The Band has maintained a club structure founded on the basis of racism, cultural oppression, misogyny, and sexual harassment."

If they were serious they'd kill each other and then themselves.

BarrySanders20 said...

It has to be a joke, right? The part in the letter about "the Band will not ask for or expect forgiveness" gives it away.

I guess the preemptive don't ask/don't expect is a given since microaggressed-against leftists have no understanding or capacity for such an act central to the Christian faith.

But darn it, now I want to know what those crazy band kids did! Swapped out the sheet music of the tuba section? Dipped someone's reed in hot sauce? Glued the sax dude's value shut? Put a tampon in the flutist's flute?

Jupiter said...

Good start. Now dissolve the whole stinking shithole of a University, sell the assets and give the proceeds to Crack MC.

Fernandinande said...

Sex is the whole reason to join the band.

Oops

wildswan said...

I looked up the disbanded banned band to see why it was disbanded and banned. In Wickipedia they said:

"The band regularly stirs up controversy due to its irreverent sense of humor."
And gave some examples.

"In 1964, the band performed a "Salute to Moral Decay," featuring a formation of "the upper part of a topless bathing suit" (all marchers left the field except for two sousaphones, while the band played "My Favorite Things") and a typically heavy-handed reference to Walter Jenkins, an aide to President Lyndon Johnson, who had been caught in flagrante delicto in a men's room. Columbia's president had to fend off angry letters from several notables, including conductor Leonard Bernstein.
In 1966, the band was suspended for several games for the infamous "birth control" show where they formed a birth control pill, a calendar (for the rhythm method), and a chastity belt.
In 1972, at West Point, the band formed what it called a "burning Cambodian village" on the field. The band has been effectively banned from ever playing at West Point again.
In 1973, a brawl broke out between the CUMB and the Harvard University Band over the alleged attempted theft of the giant Harvard Bass Drum.
The band performed a 1981 halftime show at Holy Cross with the theme "The Lions vs. The Christians". Holy Cross administrators subsequently dis-invited the band from any future games played in Worcester. Columbia's next road game vs. Holy Cross in 1983 was the beginning of what became an NCAA-record losing streak; the Lions would go almost five years without a win."

So I would bet that the band mocked Antifa/ BLM. Being outrageous is reserved to Antifa/ BLM; it must be done with a serious face, unless a policeman is injured; it must involve property damage and / or being mean to unknown white people. Jokes aimed at A/B are racist. But why disband? Jokes are racist, Non jokes are racist. Silence is racist. Speech is racist. Existing is racist. But not everything is racist. 1619 took its US history from the Confederate version of history of the Constitution but 1619 is not racist. Teaching the Confederate ideology as the true history of the US is not racist. But knowing that there was a Civil War is racist. There was no group of Northern states that disagreed with the Confederate version of the Constitution. There was no Civil War. Everyone agreed withe Confederates and so they did not secede.

rcocean said...

The Ivy League is no longer American, its a globalist entity, with students who either are not Americans, or American in name only. I wonder how long it will take for average people to figure that out. They probably still think Yale and Harvard are full of WASP's singing Cole Porter songs and Yachting.

Fernandinande said...

Speaking of evil musicians, here's Hitler and Stalin singing a little ditty.

Rory said...

"Kids are so... What do I even want to say about this? This response is the opposite of maturity."

Dr. Hyman Monroe, from an interview with radio station WKRP-AM (Cincinnati): "Children, by adult standards, are insane...and more than a little immature."

Rory said...

Just a reminder that the name "Columbia" is problematic, too.

n.n said...

Ah. The final solution - Cultural Suicide.

Yes, the wicked solution, the final solution. A milestone in social progress.

bagoh20 said...

If a modern university decided to just become one big opium den full of beanbag chairs and opium sessions instead of classes, would it be any worse? Would they accomplish anything less. Opium has got to be cheaper than woke professors.

Kevin said...

After failing to submit paperwork required to become a recognized campus group, it was financially cut from the University.

So rather admit the geniuses that are students at Columbia couldn’t get their paperwork in in time without oversight from their parents, they decided to use their demise as an act of collective virtue signaling.

jnseward said...

Obviously they should dissolve the entire university.

bagoh20 said...

Wait till they find out how much racism there is in the school BLM chapter.

n.n said...

1. Identify a respected institution.
2. kill it.
3. gut it.
4. wear its carcass as a skin suit, while demanding respect.


Much like the defilement of Boy Scouts by trans/homo males, and subsequent cannibalization of its remains by voracious lawyers, who, notably, still indulge #NoJudgment #NoLabels in a Twilight submission.

Dave Begley said...

Real reason? It is too much work to practice and the football team is terrible.

n.n said...

Not enough black kids at Columbia want to be in the marching band, I guess.

Too many white girls from next door in the Olympics... in the band. h/t The Guardian Diversity is a progressive condition with the establishment of the Pro-Choice quasi-religion ("ethics").

WisRich said...

First they came for the marching bands but I didn't play an instrument.

Michael K said...

Has anyone heard of them before ?

mezzrow said...

@rhhardin

Sex is the whole reason to join the band.

Is that an Artie Shaw quote?

It's not the whole reason but there was this one time, at band camp...

This was never a serious marching band. Not in my lifetime, and I'm 67 now. Back in my time Ivy bands were already ironic, but they were still serious about playing well. Now, it's just another club activity.

I'd like to see these folks last a week at a serious HBCU band camp. They'd probably be worn out on day one at FAMU or Jackson State.

Mr. T. said...

Columbia University should be dissolved since its expansion was the result of illegal uses of eminent domain by crook and liar Lee Bollinger.

Ken B said...

Do the university next. Attending Columbia seems to make you complicit in racism. WITHDRAW.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Blue tribe schools don’t have football and marching band and cheerleaders. Those things are so icky and flyover. They’re just catching up to being on brand.

My daughter (eight years of band including four of HS band, two as a section leader, and in her second year of college marching band) says she researched it and Columbia has a history of hazing. Her school (out west) does none of that nonsense. So as usual we have a bunch of coastal shitheads who can’t contain their shitheadery and thus can’t have nice things. Not that they think marching band is nice (see graph 1).

AlbertAnonymous said...

Several years from now there’ll be a petition (probably by the black students association) to start a band. And it’ll blame the school’s lack of band on .... you got it, racism. It’ll be all about how Columbia has all these black students and they want a band, it’s a great outlet and resume booster for grad school and job applications but the school’s oppressing them by not having one when other schools nearby have them and make for a leg up for these black students.

Like sands through the hourglass...

I'm Full of Soup said...

Jeez, when even the fagbags can't co-exist, there is not much hope for the country.

Known Unknown said...

WHO THE FUCK CARES.

gilbar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gilbar said...

Serious question
WHO got to vote?

All the present members?
All the club executives?
All the "let's commit suicide" board members?
All the vice presidents of diversity?

Anonymous said...

95% chance this is a joke. They were trolling before there was trolling. Famously come into Butler Library the night before the organic chem final and play a tuba-driven set.

Leland said...

Big Mike @1:04 beat me to it. As Hombre also notes, if these institutions want to self-immolate; others will take their place. The future belongs to those that show up.

tim in vermont said...

I knew this as soon as I watched the movie Drum Line, I knew all along it was white supremacists secretly pulling the strings to fill stadiums full of black people to watch black marching bands perform what seemed to the casual viewer like amazing feats of musicality and dance, but anybody who has ever read the novel The Sirens of Titan can see how they were only so many marionettes dancing on strings pulled by white supremacists!

tim in vermont said...

We sure do seem to be living during one of history’s rare Idiot Extravaganzas. How long do those typically last?

The Black Plague produced idiocy like this for decades.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"Prog self-immolation. I like it!"

My immediate reaction as well. If Progs are truly sincere, then it follows that they must be the first to go.

It's tough to be a totalitarian when you're a lightweight.

tim in vermont said...

"Sex is the whole reason to join the band.”

cue “One time, at band camp...”

That’s half of what band camp is.

Craig said...

Nihilism: the inevitable outcome of Progressivism.

Jamie said...

This one time? At band camp? We all took a vote and decided that band was, like, sooo racist. So we went home.

CWJ said...

This one time ... at band camp.

mezzrow said...

A thought - I'd love to hear what Mike Leckrone has to say about this.

ALP said...

Uh, what? Ever heard of a movie called "Drumline"? Sooooo....that movie gets cancelled in the spirit of cancelling marching bands? I can't bear to read these insipid articles (so maybe I should refrain from commenting) but I have been under the impression that the marching band thing was an offical *part of African American culture* in same manner as churchy gospel stuff.

People must be inhaling too much smoke.

ALP said...

After failing to submit paperwork required to become a recognized campus group, it was financially cut from the University. Following a reprieve between the athletic department and the band in October 2019, it is now unclear whether the band will lose its funding, the Spectator reported.

**********
Ah, Always Read the Article! Sounds like a graceful way to fold due to financial problems.

Wince said...

The university itself is still named after Columbus, isn't it?

Joe Smith said...

"This one time at band camp..."

Honestly, it's getting to the point that I don't care anymore.

My kids are grown, they won't miss out on any of this.

It's kind of like men competing against women in sports. Bring it on. Destroy sports for all women and girls.

The left destroys everything.

BillieBob Thorton said...

Columbia has/had a marching band?

Who knew?

I'm Full of Soup said...

The Ivy League cancelled football season so what does a marching band do without football? Parades? Those have been cancelled too.

Birkel said...

I hereby declare that these people are unemployable and must never be hired.
They are a detriment to the human race.

Dumb asses.

Owen said...

Other and wiser commenters have covered the point I would make. But I'll make it again, coarsely, just to emphasize the idiocy and to savor the moment: these people are giving us a live demonstration of how to disappear up your own arsehole.

Doing so creates a strange pucker in the space-time continuum, deserving of further study: from a safe distance.

MadisonMan said...

“The Columbia University Marching Band apologizes for insult and injury victims have experienced as a result of actions perpetrated in its name
Why not name actual names here? Such passive injustice in the past. Mistakes were made.

spoot said...

Readers might want to visit the band's Wikipedia page to see it's history of irreverent and sometimes offensive humor and satire. They are sort of an outlaw band at this point but I bet the student body loves them.

Anyway the university defunded them so maybe that's the reason for the disbandment. Though at this point who knows what really happened? Love it!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University_Marching_Band

whitney said...

Great! I hate marching bands. I hope it spreads

Readering said...

I think this was sarcastic (in terms of reasons given). The band has been in a fight with the University Administration for years over its tradition of bursting into Butler Library during finals study period. All Ivy bands (and Stanford) play joke halftime programs.

Wilbur said...

"Am I the only one who finds it implausible that a quorum of voting club members all unanimously and enthusiastically agree with these propositions?"
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

I strongly suspect the vote was a show of hands, not a secret ballot.

Tomcc said...

I have long held the belief that many of our societies' ills emanated from the Columbia University marching band. It is certainly gratifying to see that it is now publicly recognized; perhaps we can now close the chapter on this terrible segment of history. Tomorrow we begin anew!

PJ said...

A performance dissolution involving apt tunes and formations would have been infinitely preferable.

Todd said...

Columbia University’s Band ‘Enthusiastically’ Dissolves Due To Realization It Was Founded On ‘Racism’ And ‘Oppression’

That is some VERY expensive stupid right there!

So, we have gone from "we are they change we have been waiting for" to "nevermind..."

Todd said...

rhhardin said...

Sex is the whole reason to join the band.

9/15/20, 1:07 PM


Band or "band camp"?

daskol said...

When joining the bandwagon means ending the band.

Bay Area Guy said...

Why is liberal, mostly white, Columbia so racist?

madAsHell said...

We sure do seem to be living during one of history’s rare Idiot Extravaganzas. How long do those typically last?

I'll take a swing at that. The 1968 summer of love. The whole world is watching, and the DNC convention in Chicago was the beginning.

I'll say the end was the Iranian hostage crisis, and the election of Reagan. I'll say 12-15 years duration.

tommyesq said...

I don't know about racism or cultural oppression, but the Columbia Marching Band was the smuggest bunch of douch-bag half-assed "musicians" who ever took the field, and who relied on smarmy announcers to cover the fact that they played and marched shittily.

Narr said...

Columbia still have sports? That's the systemic racism right there.

Most university admissions depend on athletic scholarships to keep the minority enrollment up.

They could make the whole thing honest by ditching everything except sports and administrators.

Narr
I was with the edumacation subsidiary, myself

jae said...

So much for "Last summer at band camp..."

eddie willers said...

I object to their capitalizing the Band.

There is only one The Band.

And they sang, Nah, na na na na na the night they drove old Dixie down.

~ Gordon Pasha said...

Only think left is a mass seppuku.

Hippogryph said...

The appropriate trolling would be to provide notes to these students prospective employers that they were members of a self-proclaimed racist organization, during their college days.

mikee said...

One time at Band Camp, sexual misconduct, assault and racism made a formerly funny joke - sad.

The release of this many Band Geeks into civil society at one time bodes ill for the future.

cubanbob said...

Other than the University Club at this point what exactly would motivate a non-lefty alum to give? And as for the club, in this age of Covid, how much longer will it exist?

Left Bank of the Charles said...

The backstory makes it pretty obvious this is a bit of performance art by the self-proclaimed "cleverest band in the world". Well played, Disbanded Columbia University Marching Band.

Biff said...

As is the case with a lot of the Ivy League marching bands, the group was focused on satire (often very crass), and not so much on marching. Each week's performance featured a new script and new music. The band had much more in common with the writer's room of a cable tv news satire show than with what most people think of as a marching band. At their best, such bands can be creative and funny, but at their worst, they're like pre-schoolers running around with kazoos and making fart jokes.

Full disclosure: I was a member of the equivalent organization at Yale during my freshman year, but I didn't stick around for a second year because I found the band's antics and humor to be extraordinarily juvenile. I imagine the wokesters will come for the bands at Yale, Princeton, etc. soon enough. Certainly the bands have their supporters, but many alums and other members of the community consider them to be an embarrassment, regardless of political views.

Michael said...

So now let’s rifle our personnel files to find former members of this racist club and make them pay. Apologize then resign.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

We sure do seem to be living during one of history’s rare Idiot Extravaganzas. How long do those typically last?

Hmm, 1492 - 410 =

Well, I don't have any good news for you..

Mark Nielsen said...


Death Cab for Cutie's "Marching Bands of Manhattan":

Sorrow drips into your heart through a pin hole
Just like a faucet that leaks and there is comfort in the sound
But while you debate half empty and half full
It slowly rises, your love is gonna drown.

Mark said...

So are they saying that they are THEMSELVES racist, cultural oppressors, misogynists, and sexual harassers?


I suspect not.

Not enough to simply not join in the first place, they have to invade and infest and infect precisely in order to destroy from within.

William said...

I haven't kept abreast about the latest news on marching bands, but wasn't there a huge pile of scandals about them in the recent past. The hazing went beyond humiliation and into sexual abuse and torture. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if marching bands attracted the wrong sorts of people. They wear uniforms, play brass instruments, and some of them even play patriotic marches and wave the flag. Definitely a magnet for fascists. The tuba should be labeled "this machine nurtures fascists". Maybe if we passed laws against marching bands or just prohibited the wearing of uniforms or marching behind any but the rainbow or BLM flag, marching bands could be reformed. But, as it stands now, the safest course of action is to just defund them and kill the tuba players.

Rick said...

which was 'founded on the basis of racism' and 'cultural oppression.'"
The Daily Caller reports.


If this was actually true they would explain how. Otherwise it's just shit left wingers say.

Michael said...

There are no better marching bands than those of historically black colleges. None. They are uniformly outstanding.

eddie willers said...

After doing due diligence, I have come to the conclusion that this is, indeed, a prank consistent with the Band's history.

And now, we dance.

Jupiter said...

"In 1964, the band performed a "Salute to Moral Decay," featuring a formation of "the upper part of a topless bathing suit" (all marchers left the field except for two sousaphones, while the band played "My Favorite Things") and a typically heavy-handed reference to Walter Jenkins, an aide to President Lyndon Johnson, who had been caught in flagrante delicto in a men's room. Columbia's president had to fend off angry letters from several notables, including conductor Leonard Bernstein."

Hmmmm......

Banjo said...

"We've lowered the threshold for what's racist to such a low point that it will render the term truly meaningless."

It's already happened. I'm reminded of the dirge-like Sondheim lyric:"Send in the clowns... don't bother they're here."

Money Manger said...

I hear you knocking, but you can’t come in.

Dude1394 said...

Cool. Now do football, basketball, baseball and all other racist sports. Then do all fraternities and all organizations. Kick out all white people because only black lives matter. Defund them all.

n.n said...

Salute to Moral Decay

Social progress.

stevew said...

They'll be missed, by the people that noticed them in the first place.

readering said...

Biff: Me too, although I left because I found a better way to get free trips to Cambridge and Princeton.

Phil 314 said...

Columbia football games won’t be the same without them.

Yancey Ward said...

Ok, so maybe it was a parody disbanding. Honestly, how can you tell the difference anymore?

The Godfather said...

When I was in college, the one U that mine could count on beating regularly in football was Columbia. When I went to Law School at Columbia I learned . . . that nobody at Columbia gave a flaming f*ck about athletics. My only "political activism" at Columbia LS was to urge the administration to replace the LLB degree with the JD degree before Harvard did. I didn't think the change would make any difference, but it was clearly coming, so why not have Columbia take the lead for a change? But (just as I predicted) Columbia stuck with the LLB until Harvard adopted the JD. I got a good legal education at CLS, better (for me) than I would have from HLS, but I am still p-od that Columbia refused to take leadership.

The Godfather said...

Repost, if this didn't post when I first did it.

When I was in college, the one U that mine could count on beating regularly in football was Columbia. When I went to Law School at Columbia I learned . . . that nobody at Columbia gave a flaming f*ck about athletics. My only "political activism" at Columbia LS was to urge the administration to replace the LLB degree with the JD degree before Harvard did. I didn't think the change would make any difference, but it was clearly coming, so why not have Columbia take the lead for a change? But (just as I predicted) Columbia stuck with the LLB until Harvard adopted the JD. I got a good legal education at CLS, better (for me) than I would have from HLS, but I am still p-od that Columbia refused to take leadership.

Todd Roberson said...

Anybody heard from the transgendereds lately?

They seemed to have the ear of nation at one time.

Josephbleau said...

The Stanford band insulted Iowa at the Rose Bowl, seems elite school bands are a bunch of pricks. Sounds like the Columbia band kids just got tired of the joke and there was nothing left of the program other than the joke.

Earnest Prole said...

I wondered all my life who's responsible for America's terrible racism and it turns out it's the Columbia University Marching Band?

Rusty said...

Columbia University had a marching band?
I didn't even know they had a football team.

Sam L. said...

I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo not bummed for them.

PM said...

Todd Roberson: "Anybody heard from the transgendereds lately?"

Every day in the SF Chronicle. W/pix. Today, how the Pride Board has banned LGBTQ police officers from joining in the 2021 Pride Parade. Sad emoji. "Queer Solidarity Forever" it signed off. Also they're miffed about 1) no bar life and 2) a joyless Halloween - the most important day of the year.

Bryan Townsend said...

In related news, Western Civilization, due to its racist and sexist past, has voted to dissolve itself in favor of progressive Maoism.