Flattened Multiplicities

In the very first episode of the critically acclaimed ESPN documentary “OJ: Made in America,” the sociologist Dr. Harry Edwards contemplates OJ’s racial self-distinction during his college days in the 1960s. OJ thought he should be “judged not by the color of my skin, I want to be judged by the content of my character and most of all the caliber of my competence…that’s all I want to be judged by.” Finishing the final episode one week after the surprising and revealing (though not revelatory) results of the U.S. election, I found myself thinking about identity in another field where people claim that competence comes first: classical music.