There is a new brand of music springing up on campuses. The multicultural analogue of Christian rock, I like to think of it as diversity pop. Magdalen Hsu-Li, a bisexual Chinese-American singer/songwriter from smalltown Virginia, is one of the poster girls of higher ed's new "roots rock." Hsu-Li recently performed at Pitt as part of its Diversity Week, where she sang a song about "the Divided States of America" (sample lyric: "There's not a lot of unity .... I like the idea of striving for unity, but I also like to face reality, which is that we live in divided states") and another entitled "F--- Bush" ( "You'll always be Daddy's bitch," she crooned to a delighted crowd of 60). Hsu-Li also offers a series of lectures and workshops on diversity issues (see in particular her "True Diversity - Exploring Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Programming").

Elaine Penn, who recently conducted sensitivity training for all Harvard athletes, is another practitioner of the new diversity pop. According to Penn's website, her album Same Sky "explores diversity in a profound and artistic way," using "melodic harmonies to resonate unity" and devoting songs to racism, homophobia, single motherhood, teen violence, and the importance of moving beyond prejudice to embrace diversity.

But diversity pop is, well, diverse, and not all of the new roots rockers are as quiet, reflective, and therapeutically-oriented as Hsu-Li. Rapper Ludacris, for example, will be appearing later this month at UNC Wilmington, where his presence will serve to demonstrate the university's commitment to diversity. Though Ludacris has been harshly criticized for lyrics that demean blacks and women--most notably by Bill O'Reilly, whose publicity campaign against the rapper caused Pepsi to pull an ad featuring him--he has been invited to UNCW for the express purpose of proving that the campus is a welcoming, tolerant, and inclusive place. Last year, when a white pop artist was brought to campus, some black students complained. Ludacris is the university's palliative response: "The black students didn't feel we were catering to them at all, and with the diversity issues on the forefront we thought it would be a good time to do it," said the event organizer. Half of Ludacris' $120,000 fee will be paid out of student fees.

Not all members of the UNCW community think Ludacris is a proper ambassador of diversity. Psychology professor James Johnson said that the rapper's music is "violent and it's condoning violence. ... Nothing good can come of this." Women's studies professor Elizabeth Ervin opined that "What's truly ludicrous is that UNCW would use student fees to host a so-called entertainer who degrades in the vilest and most violent terms more than 60 percent of the student body." These are minority opinions, however. So far, over 17,000 tickets to the event have been sold.

We're also having "diversity-enhancing performers" at NCSU for Unity Week. They chose Margaret Cho, who is lauded in the student paper for being a bisexual Korean-American, not for being a comedian.

I think the real humor here isn't coming from Margaret Cho.

You better get used to this sort of thing; as long as skepticism about the benefits of diversity is equated with racism and xenophobia, which it largely is today, this stuff is not going away. And speaking nominally of the music biz, album sales have been in a steady decline for years. Could this have something to do with the content? Instead the music industry chose to hammer on sites like napster, which was never shown to have a significant financial impact.

I find it astonishing that someone would be lauded for something which they had no control over. Margaret Cho is Korean-American only because her parents were Korean and bi-sexual because of her biology. She choose neither. It's like being lauded for being tall, or having big feet. It's not like an accomplishment or the result of years of hard work and sacrifice(like her comedy, for instance). It's like the reverse of racism, that is, condemning someone for characteristics over which they have no control.

The real tragedy is that Margaret Cho isn't really that funny.

Hello Nobody:

Have to disagree with you for a change. My wife is a traditional Asian woman. White woman simply refuse to listen to her, even in normal daily conversation, because her wisdom and viewpoint is that of a traditional Asian woman.

Cho's notoriety is based on her willingness to act like a spoiled brat white American woman. This is what makes her attractive to white audiences.

Whether she is really bisexual, or whether this is merely a clever marketing ploy is something we cannot know.

I agree that Margaret Cho is not all that funny. But this is: If you bother to read the article about the Pitt show that Erin links to, note that half the audience left during the show because, according to the reporter, they "couldn't" stay. Ostensibly due to the fact the starting time was pushed back from 8:30 to 9:00pm. Couldn't or wouldn't? Might there be another reason half of them left?? Like not wanting the evening to be a total loss???