John McWhorter, an opinion writer and Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, has drawn online mockery after lamenting on Tuesday that pro-Palestine protests were preventing his students from experiencing John Cage’s 4’33”, a piece that consists of 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence.
“Last Thursday, in the music humanities class I teach at Columbia University, two students were giving an in-class presentation on the composer John Cage,” McWhorter wrote. “His most famous piece is “4’33″”, which directs us to listen in silence to surrounding noise for exactly that period of time.”
“I had to tell the students we could not listen to that piece that afternoon, because the surrounding noise would have been not birds or people walking by in the hallway, but infuriated chanting from protesters outside the building,” McWhorter went on. “Lately that noise has been almost continuous during the day and into the evening, including lusty chanting of “From the river to the sea.” Two students in my class are Israeli; three others to my knowledge are American Jews. I couldn’t see making them sit and listen to this as if it were background music.”
The pushback online by supporters of Palestine was swift: “It really does not get much better than this. Every layer here is tremendous,” wrote one user. “McWhorter wants the sound of 4’33 to be birds chirping or people chatting, not chanting and police sirens. John Cage got his ass I’m afraid.”
McWhorter’s comments have raised questions about academic freedom and the role of political activism on university campuses. Some have argued that McWhorter is right to prioritize the educational experience of his students, while others have accused him of being insensitive to the concerns of marginalized groups.
The debate over McWhorter’s comments is likely to continue as tensions rise on university campuses over issues of free speech and social justice.
