Photo: Student French Horn Player with Former Marine Band Player | By Scott Pelley, CBS News
The United States Marine Band was founded in 1798. Thomas Jefferson gave it its nickname, “The President’s Own.” Today, 135 Marines still perform the score of the White House from parties to inaugurations. So, there was excitement, last year, when the Marines judged a contest for teenage musicians. The winners would perform with the band. Thirty students were chosen. The concert was scheduled. But, last month, it was cancelled. President Trump had issued his executive order against diversity programs, and the young musicians were Black, Hispanic, Indian and Asian. Because they were silenced, many wanted to hear them including veterans of military bands who gathered in an improvised orchestra of equity that you might call America’s own.
This past Sunday, at the music center at Strathmore, near Washington, 22 students who had lost their chance to play tuned up with the military band veterans for the concert that was not meant to be heard.
This music had been planned for the cancelled concert. “Nobles of the Mystic Shrine” by John Philip Sousa. Sousa directed the Marine Band a century and a half ago and composed “Stars and Stripes Forever,” the great classic in the songbook of patriots.
Rishab Jain: We’re a land that prides itself on being the land of the free, the home of the brave. And I believe that just as much as anyone else does. But for that, we need these different perspectives. We need to see how others think.
18-year-old Rishab Jain was among the students barred from playing with the Marines. He was born in America to Indian parents—a high school senior accepted at Harvard.
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But that executive order is just the beginning. All across the government, President Trump is rolling back 60 years of discrimination protections for women, older Americans, the disabled and people of color.
Trump rescinded President Johnson’s 1965 ban on employment bias. He closed the Social Security Office of Civil Rights and fired leaders of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, which investigates bias in the workplace.
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Go here to read the full interview or to watch the video story:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-administration-dei-order-forces-cancellation-of-concert-with-students/
Produced by Nicole Young and Kristin Steve. Broadcast associate, Michelle Karim. Edited by Warren Lustig.
CBS Editor’s note: Last month Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS News, announced it was modifying some of its own DEI policies. The company said the changes were intended to comply with the shift in federal guidelines under the new presidential administration.
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’60 Minutes’ Profiles Collateral Damage Of Trump’s War On DEI: Students Of Color Who Were Denied Chance To Play With U.S. Marine Band
By Lynette Rice, CBS News – 60 Minutes | 60 Minutes took aim President Trump’s war on diversity, equity and inclusion Sunday by focusing on the collateral damage of his controversial executive order — a group of young Black, Hispanic, Indian and Asian musicians who were denied the chance to play with the U.S. Marine Band this year.
Last year, the band — founded in 1798 and nicknamed the “President’s Own” by Thomas Jefferson — collaborated with a Chicago-based nonprofit that supports student musicians of color by giving them a chance to audition for the orchestra.
The plan was for this select group of youths to perform with their adult counterparts at a concert in May, according to the report by Scott Pelley. But Trump’s executive order against diversity programs forced them to scuttle the performance — depriving the youths of the unique opportunity to play with the Marines.
“If we’re a society that’s suppressing art, we’re a society that is afraid of what it might reveal about itself. If we’re suppressing music, we’re suppressing emotions, we’re suppressing expression, we’re suppressing vulnerability, we’re suppressing the very essence of what makes us human,” said Rishab Jain, an 18-year-old, Harvard-bound Indian American who was among the 30 students selected to play. “We are devaluing our own humanity. We are degrading our own humanity.”
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The CBS newsmagazine gathered the youths along with retired musicians from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Westpoint, the Naval Academy and the Marines to perform at a concert hall rented by Equity Arc. Sunday’s episode showed the orchestra playing “Gallop” by Dimitri Shostakovich under the leadership of conductor Rodney Dorsey of Florida State University.
“I challenge anyone, literally, anyone to come to me and say by having this concert does damage to the United States,” said John Abbracciamento, a retired trumpet player from the Marine Band who volunteered to play with the youths. “It doesn’t. It brings out the best of us.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/60-minutes-profiles-collateral-damage-of-trump-s-war-on-dei-students-of-color-who-were-denied-chance-to-play-with-u-s-marine-band/
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Their full concert can be found here. 42:20 minutes in length
60 Minutes Overtime: Playing in harmony, despite the president’s DEI executive order
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/playing-in-harmony-despite-presidents-dei-executive-order-60-minutes/
Photo: 60 Minutes French Horn players | From the 60 Minutes Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1012486067413443&set=pb.100059561768459.-2207520000