Music director sacked after deep south joke hits wrong note
WHEN an American university sacked the acclaimed director of its music festival after claims he had made a racist joke, it may well have congratulated itself on acting swiftly to avert a fullblown controversy.
After all, the idea of a US academic institution tolerating such unacceptable behaviour is the kind of thing likely to promote protests on campus.
It might have helped, however, if the University of Oregon had first checked with the black American singer who was the butt of the joke to see whether he had found it at all offensive before dismissing Matthew Halls, the British conductor in question.
In fact, Reginald Mobley said there was nothing racist about Halls’ joke and that his friend was a victim of a misguided and “overeager” attempt to confront prejudice, even when there was none there. Halls was removed as artistic director of the Oregon Bach Festival following an incident in which he imitated a southern American accent while talking to Mobley.
It is understood a white woman who overheard the joke reported it to officials at the University of Oregon, which runs the festival, claiming it amounted to a racial slur.
Shortly after, Halls, who has worked with orchestras and opera houses across Europe and the US, was told by a university official his four-year contract, which was to have run until 2020, was being terminated. Mobley, a countertenor who regularly performs in the UK, has now spoken out to defend his friend, saying there was nothing racist about the joke and describing the university’s apparent treatment of Halls as deeply unjust. “He has been victimised and I’m very upset about it,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. “It was an innocent joke that has been entirely taken out of context.”
The incident follows heightened sensitivity over race in the US, with renewed protests over police brutality, institutional racism and the re-emergence of white supremacists.
It also coincides with the rise of what some have dubbed the “snowflake generation”, and the debate over whether the demand for “safe spaces” on campus stifles debate and free speech or simply protects minorities from abuse and discrimination.
Mobley maintains that while racism should be challenged and ethnic groups made aware of each other’s sensitivities, his friend has been the victim of misunderstanding and overreaction.
Halls and Mobley had been talking at a reception held last month during this year’s Oregon Bach Festival, when the subject turned to a concert in London in which Mobley had performed.
The singer, who was born and raised in the southern state of Florida, said the concert had an “antebellum” feel to it, of the sort associated with rose-tinted representations of the south.
In response, Mobley said that Halls “apologised on behalf of England”, before putting on an exaggerated southern accent and joking: “Do you want some grits?”, in a reference to the ground corn dish popular in the south.
“I’m from the deep south and Matthew often makes fun of the southern accent just as I often make fun of his British accent,” said Mobley. “Race was not an issue. He was imitating a southern accent, not putting on a black accent, and there was nothing racist or malicious about it.”
An internal inquiry is understood to have been held. Mobley was not invited to give evidence and says the authorities appear to have assumed he would have objected to the joke.