I couldn’t agree more.

I went to a southern white-only grade school in the 1950’s. Every week, our music teacher would assemble the entire school in the auditorium and ask “Who is the greatest composer who ever lived?” and (like the well-trained children we were) we would shout in unison, “Stephen Foster!” Then we would launch into a litany of Stephen Foster songs (“I hear de gentle voices calling, ‘Old Black Joe’ ”). As egregious as this indoctrination was, I can’t imagine making children of color suffer through such racist lessons today.

Songs are perhaps the most powerful platform for indoctrination. Unlike film, they stay with you indefinitely. Once a song is embedded in the listener’s head, just playing the melody can call up all the bigotry of the lyrics. And if the listener isn’t conscious of the lyrics’ intent, the propaganda is even more effective.

Thank you for this thoughtful and authoritative essay.