Ethnic Randomization 191Bibliography
Hasse, John E, Jr. Beyond Category: Th e Life and Genius of Duke
Ellington. New York: Da Capo Press, 1993.
Tucker, Mike. Ellington: Th e Early Years. Urbana: University of Il-
linois Press, 1991.Ethnic Randomization
Ethnic randomization is a theory that claims that slave
traders and ship captains consciously selected enslaved
Africans from diff erent ethnic groups during capture and
transportation so as to reduce the risk of revolts. Th is the-
ory has been advanced by anthropologists Sidney Mintz
and Richard Price in their book Th e Birth of African Ameri-
can Culture: An Anthropological Perspective.
Mintz and Price use this theory in an attempt to coun-
ter the claim of relative cultural homogeneity of the en-
slaved Africans advanced by Melville Herskovits, in Th e
Myth of the Negro Past. According to Herskovits, there
was relative cultural uniformity among West Africans, and
therefore it is possible to pinpoint African cultural survivals
in the New World.
Using the theory of ethnic randomization, Mintz and
Price attempt to dismiss the plausibility of the argument.
Th ey argue that such survivals commonly known as Af-
ricanisms did not occur because they would require large
numbers of a particular ethnic group, which was not pos-
sible because enslaved Africans had been “randomized.”
Mintz and Price argue that the Africans who came to the
New World were drawn from diff erent parts of Africa, from
numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, and from diff erent
societies in any region. Th erefore, they posit that it cannot
be said that enslaved Africans shared a common culture, in
which case they had nothing to transmit.
In recent times, however, while admitting that en-
slaved Africans indeed had diverse ethnic origins, schol-
ars have criticized the ethnic randomization theory, stating
that it goes against the logic of slave trade. John Th ornton
in Africans in the New World argues that ethnic randomiza-
tion did not occur in the Middle Passage. He says that slave
ships drew their entire cargo only from one or perhaps two
ports in Africa and unloaded them in large lots of as many
as 200–1,000 in their new Atlantic homes. He further ar-
gues that it was in the interest of the slave-ship captains tothe 17 or so members of his orchestra. One of Ellington’s
gift s as a bandleader and composer was his ability to fi nd
a place and space for the diff erent musicians’ voices in his
orchestra and musical arrangements, which allowed him to
evoke diff erent moods in his music and continue to generate
new compositions. Ellington appreciated and worked with
the diff erent sounds, stylistic approaches, and personalities
of the musicians in his band—the more hard-edge sounds
of Sam Woodyard and Cootie Williams and the smoother
sounds of Johnny Hodges and Lawrence Brown, to name
a few—and they, in turn, respected and followed his lead.
Th is type of camaraderie and musical connection among
the band members was harnessed and then held together
and kept in locomotion by Ellington. He was, through his
leadership of the band, able to arrange and integrate the
diff erent musicians so that the music they produced to-
gether remained solid and “swinging” while still providing
a variety of rich textures—tones and rhythms—that gave
the orchestra its discerning sound. Many of the original
band members remained in the orchestra with Ellington up
until the end, playing through the latter avant-garde years
and during the period of tours overseas for the U.S. State
Department.
Both jazz-seasoned and classically trained composers
and musicians consider “the Duke” to be one of Ameri-
ca’s (some argue the world’s) greatest composers. Even a
non-musician such as President Nixon recognized Duke
Ellington as “America’s foremost composer” and awarded
Ellington the highest award issued to an American civil-
ian, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, adding to a long
list of awards, honors, and achievements garnered over the
years. Duke Ellington has been awarded the President’s
Gold Medal on behalf of Lyndon B. Johnson; honorary
doctorate degrees from America’s most prestigious univer-
sities, Harvard and Yale University; the Legion of Honor,
the highest honor awarded an individual by the French
government; and 13 Grammy awards. Schools, festivals,
parks, streets, bridges, memorials, and children across the
United States have been named aft er Duke Ellington, a tes-
tament to his lasting impact on American music and cul-
ture and his continued importance in the hearts and minds
of Americans.
See also: Black Folk Culture; Jazz; Ragtime
Sean Elias