"White people music."Let me say that, once more."White people music."A young relative of mine, who is half Filipino and half white, attended an Asian get-together of family and friends in northwest Calgary recently.At that get-together, that was cordial and involved Chinese food, she related a story to me, that shocked us both.She met a Filipina girl, a college student younger than she was and a friend of the hosts, and they started chatting, and getting to know each other.Who are you, what are you interested in, that kind of stuff.Anyway, they agreed to share music on their phones, to see what each of them liked.After she showed her Spotify to this Filipina, she remarked: "Oh, you have a lot of white people music on your phone."A comment which shocked my friend — she had never heard this saying before, and, well, neither have I.Attaching race to music was a new one on me!She paused, took a breath, and responded: "You do know, I am half white and half Filipina?"Yes, said the student.My friend then said, politely, "Don't you think that's kind of a racist thing to say?"Well, the student did not think so and then launched into a long polemic about how bad white people were, the history of colonialism, stolen economic wealth, unequal access to health care, education and social justice, etc., etc.Basically, shaming her for having and listening to "white people music."And I suppose, for being half white! To be honest, I don't even know what that is. I am a big fan of CKUA, and, they play all kinds of music. I like almost all genres.And so does my friend, who is half white and half Filipina.Anyway, it did not end well, with the Filipina getting personal with insults and so forth. Thankfully, my friend took the high road and did not respond to any of it. She is the better person, by far.But the thought occurred to me, what in God's name are young people learning in high schools and universities these days?Obviously, someone has influenced this person to hate — even going so far as to judge someone by the music they listen to.That's ridiculous, of course, but it happened, and I'm still somewhat shocked by it.I wondered too, if this was a common feeling among some young people that whites are to blame for anything and everything.Could this kind of "with us, or against us" attitude also be a focal point for creating a backlash against immigrants or visible minorities.And how did we get here in the first place? I mean, what are the influences our children are facing in these hallowed halls of academia.Is it social media? That seems to have a huge effect on teens today too.And is that gap growing between Canadians and new Canadians?Whatever, we have gone from white privilege, to white people music — all in just the last few years. The world has gone woke.And don't you dare disagree or defend your white heritage, or you will be labelled a racist.Does this mean my faves, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett are bad? And, am I bad for listening to it, because I am so darn privileged? And who gets to judge all this? Is there a Supreme Music Court who decides? And how did this college kid miss the tolerance bus? Was there no one to tell her to be a bit more accepting of others? Someone in this individual's social circle must have planted this seed.I thought music was music. You either like it, or you don't. And being this is not North Korea, we actually do have a choice We also have a prime minister who is apologizing for anything and everything, even if it's total BS.To get another opinion, and to try to understand it, I called upon my professor friend, who has to deal with Generation Z every day.His response: "That's a new one for me!""I have never heard of this before — my students listen to all the new music that's out there." "Some of them are Muslim (and) they listen to Taylor Swift, but they also listen to Lebanese music. They listen to everything and anything. I've never heard any of them talking about racist white music."He continued ..."A lot of 'white music' in our day like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin had their origins in black blues from the southern U.S. Early rock was as much blues as anything else.""(And) why single out 'white people?' Caucasians are a mixed bag — there is no such thing as a white person. There are Europeans, Scandinavians, Brits, Irish, some Americans and Canadians. The term 'white' is a bogus term."He concluded, that it was "reverse racism."And if a student said this in his class, he would call them out. Racism and swearing are not tolerated.I then did a quick Google of "white music," and came up with the following.After 1970, musical segregation allegedly hardened. Looking at the genres that arose since then, most of them are strictly coded as "white" (metal, punk, new wave, indie rock and EDM, or electronic dance music.)Black (funk, later soul, disco, hip-hop) and performers crossing those racial lines are a needle in a haystack, according to music experts.Country & Western was not even mentioned, meaning it's out there, on its own somewhere.Although Beyonce did recently introduce a so-called country album, that critics can't seem to agree on.Mainstream bandwagoneers are calling it the best thing ever, while music critics are saying hold the phone! Rolling Stone said it didn't know exactly what it was.Moral of the story: Play the music you like and enjoy, and don't listen to what anyone says.Music is not white or black, or green, or red, or yellow. It's just music. And there to be enjoyed.Anyone who says so, is missing a few cards in the deck.
