Hearing with an Imperial Ear: Racializing the PC Band on their Tour of America in 1909

• Main Author: Talusan, Mary
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: University Press of Mississippi 2021
• Subjects: Pacific; Yukon; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.14325/mississippi/9781496835666.003.0004

In 1909, President-elect Taft summoned the Philippine Constabulary Band back to the United States at great expense to perform at his presidential inauguration, breaking racial decorum to emphasize his triumph in the Philippines. Afterward, they embarked on a concert tour that was attended by thousands in major concert halls before heading to the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. Newspapers positively reviewed the Band’s musical performances while describing them in an orientalist fashion as abnormal and peculiar, for example, sensationalizing their “tribal” diversity while accentuating their uniformity in appearance. Often missing from these accounts was identification of Loving’s racial identity, an omission of the success of an African American in a leadership position. Americans’ paternalist racism towards Filipinos did not extend to African Americans, and Loving was barred from entering the White House. Black elites of Washington, DC praised Loving as a success of racial uplift. This chapter gives insight into a collaboration between Filipinos and Black Americans outside of the Philippines.