Broadcasting Diversity: Alan Lomax and
Multiculturalism.
The article is a recount of Alan Lomax who began
collecting examples of folk music tucked away in rural regions during his teenage
years. He cut his teeth as a folklorist by accompanying his father, John Lomax,
on a son-collecting trip around southern penitentiaries in 1933 when he was
eighteen. (Donaldson, 2013) . This
article is a true example of the dedication and spirit of a man’s passion. He got his dream job in 1936 he accepted a position
as assistant in charge of the Archive of American Folksong in the Library of
Congress, can you image be there , his passion was already folksongs and in top
of that he was in charge to keep records of it.
The
article make a small reference about how and why Alan Lomax was so passion
about folksongs as mentioned before he
followed his father around southern penitentiaries in 1933 when he collected songs.
He worked at the Library of Congress where he was able to bring folk music to
the public something that was not popular in that time, back in that day people
already has started to move away from folk music. The article talks about many
of his accomplishments some of those is the fact that he developed radio shows
for both adults and children were he was able to introduce people from other ethnic
groups to perform and share their folk music.
Donaldson
makes reference on his article about the importance of Lomax‘s work. Lomax
believed that folk songs were living traditions that granted insight into the various
folk communities; when viewed collectively, these songs provided a deeper
understanding of the nation as a whole. (Donaldson, 2013) .
The
importance of this article is the fact that it provides an emphasis on the
ability to share a culture and to admire each and every one of the cultures
living together, let’s not forget that in that time 1933 the great depression
was just passing by and also the massive immigration from Europe has just
passed too, our country was floated with cultures from around the globe.
The
article is very interesting because it does not mention some of the main
problems that America was struggling in that time, let don’t forget that from
1930-1960 multiculturalism was not very well accepted, if you were not white
from European descent you were seem as an “immigrant” which was a phenomenon stupid
on that time due to the fact that from the 1920’s to 1930’s the
United States had a big wave of immigration from Europe , which in most of the
cases were people leaving their home countries , war and political persecution.
Lomax
used music and his radio show to show his listeners that diversity was ok and
music and diversity was even better. After
establishing that fact, he used folk music to define that identity; for Lomax,
folk songs represented the inherent diversity of the American people. One
aspect of this diversity was the ethnic pluralism generated by waves of
immigration. (Donaldson , 2013).
One of my favorite
paragraphs in the article is a scrip where he talks about the pluralism and the
beauty of the country thanks to the movement of immigration and the fact that
in the Unites States you could find people from allover the World who spoke different
languages. The importance of the article
and culture is showed by few examples such as : Lomax loved to mentioned the
example of the railroad and how important immigration is been to the construction
of the railroad system.
America is the land where men from
all over the world , speaking different languages, singing different songs,
liking different kinds of cooking, have been able to meet and say “ Hello
stranger , where are youi going”? Stop a minute and let’s have a talk. ( Donaldson,
2013) .
The
article is about 20 pages long but I chose the article with out knowing the
importance of Lomax , before reading this article I didn’t even know that he
existed . Lomax with out any doubt is
one of the most importance figures in introducing multi-culture awareness in
our country to many audiences, Lomax was not a politician he was just a man in
love with music and with the aspect of a multicultural society, he was a man
who understood the principle of a “rich” society. In my opinion and after
reading the article I can say that the dedication and spirit of Lomax is one of
the many ideas that “softed” the road for multiculturalism in the United
States.
References
Donaldson R (2013). Broadcasting Diversity: Alan Lomax and Multiculturalism. The Journal of Popular Culture. Vol. 46, No 1, 59-78.
