Someone a shade or two less wary and not so color blind, might view these moves cautiously, but as an imperfect effort at artistic affirmative action. At that time he presented statistics showing that he had hired and showcased many white musicians in the center's jazz program. More recently, he has commented on the criticism of Gene Lees. To say that my tastes are racist because I don't think a musician should be included that you think should be included is just plain wrong. As long as there is democracy, there will be people wanting to play jazz because nothing else will ever so perfectly capture the democratic process in sound.
Jazz means working things out musically with other people.
You have to listen to other musicians and play with them even if you don't agree with what they're playing. It teaches you the very opposite of racism and anti-Semitism. It teaches you that the world is big enough to accommodate us all.