Kent State a cappella group bans white students from solo auditions

Campus Reform ^ | December 5, 2025 | Emma Arns

[WhiteHatBobby0701]

An a cappella group at Kent State University in Ohio allegedly banned white students from auditioning for certain solos and disciplined a longtime member for questioning the race-based policy.

Emails obtained by Campus Reform display how Vocal Intensity A Cappella limited certain solos to “people of color,” claiming white students would be engaging in “cultural appropriation” if they were to perform them.

Mark Phillips, a three-year member and the a cappella group’s beatboxer, contacted a board member to inquire about how the exclusion of white students aligned with Kent State’s anti-discrimination policies. Phillips suggested the limitation seemed “at odds with equal opportunity” in his message to the executive board.

“I fully respect concerns about authenticity, but I also believe that whoever gives the strongest performance should be given the chance,” he wrote. “Art, music, and culture are meant to be shared and celebrated, not gatekept.”

In response, the board accused him of violating the university’s anti-discrimination policy, placed him on probation, and scheduled a disciplinary hearing requiring him to “plead his case” before the entire group.

The board later reaffirmed its position, confirming that the solos would remain restricted to black students unless overturned by a vote.

According to the group’s constitution, discrimination is prohibited on the basis of race, and Kent State University’s policy also bans racial discrimination and specifically retaliation against students who challenge it.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act earlier this year, restricting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practices across public universities. The anti-DEI bill explicitly prohibits race-based advantages, and to “provide [students] equality of opportunity, with regard to those individuals’ race,” as stated in Senate Bill 1.

While university guidelines prohibit discrimination, the board prepared a process that included a closed board hearing, potential permanent removal, and even a potential several months-long suspension.

Phillips ultimately resigned, calling the process a “performative ambush designed as a hearing.”

In his resignation letter, Phillips wrote: “I argued for equal treatment. The eagerness to twist my words shows a lack of honesty and critical thought. Denying opportunities based on skin color is discrimination by definition.”

He says he was punished, not for misconduct, but for opposing the discriminatory behavior.

“My only crime was advocating for equality for everyone, regardless of skin color. I raised a valid concern, discussed the definition of discrimination and held a mirror up to what they were doing. In their eyes, anti-white discrimination is okay, but challenging that precedent isn’t,” Phillips told Campus Reform.

“What I really want is for people to bring common sense back and stop pretending that people of color are oppressed in this country. I want people to realize that we are meant to celebrate what we have in common instead of dividing and fighting over our differences,” Phillips said.

Campus Reform has contacted Kent State University and the Vocal Intensity A Cappella group for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.

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TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Education
KEYWORDS: acappella; choir; dei; discrimination; kentstate; music; race

[V_TWIN]

“limited certain solos to “people of color,” claiming white students would be engaging in “cultural appropriation”

So tell me again how many traditionally White characters were played by blacks in Hollywood movies.

[Jamestown1630]

I was always puzzled as to how the Holocaust could have arisen.

I’m not puzzled anymore. Completely mindless hatred and mass insanity are real things; we’re watching them in our own real time.

[real saxophonist]

Spandex jackets, one for everyone

[toddausauras]

It does sound like an awful lot of work to be a leftist.

[real saxophonist]

Beat me to it.

[frank ballenger]

Another, earlier version of the intolerance:
‘Too many white people in here’: race row at US college
February 14, 2020. BBC.

A viral video showing a black student at the University of Virginia asking white students to leave the campus diversity center has sparked a debate over race.

“Frankly, there’s just too many white people in here,” the student at the podium says in the clip posted on Wednesday.

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And all those segregated black only graduation ceremonies (and other “affinity” groups meaning no whites allowed alongside non-whites) are under attack in 2025:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/dei-black-lgbtq-affinity-ceremonies-harvard-rcna209587

[rktman]

Send in the national guard. Too soon? .😳🤔

[Vermont Lt]

Ain’t no white boy gonna be singing Old Man River….

[dfwgator]

Nope, you’re the third one on this thread.

[Vermont Lt]

Even the white students know the Asians have that fair locked up tight.

[frank ballenger]

Here is an item I learned from a woman who owns a music school.

As a violinist and cellist she auditioned often and was in various symphonies and quartets professionally.

In the 1980s she said women feared being passed over for passing auditions, even when the rule changed to have a curtain between the judge and the musician.

She said women started wearing heavy men’s shoes after finding out judges could tell from the sound of the women’s shoes on the hardwood that they were women and thus discriminate against them.

She later said the #1 type of successful applicants in the 2000s had become “a very young Asian woman.”

[gundog]

In 2016, a University of Oklahoma human relations theory class stated a white man cannot be singing songs from pop diva Robyn "Rihanna" Fenty or he would be causing "microaggressions."

Being gay as hell isn’t enough to make it OK?

[dfwgator]

[Leaning Right]

> As long as black students are barred from auditioning for any parts written by white composers. <

The whole “cultural appropriation” thing is disgusting racism against whites.

But it will remain a thing until it’s applied in both directions - as you noted.

As another example, physics today is based largely on the theories of three white men, Newton, Einstein, and Schrödinger. Therefore, should only white men be admitted into the study of physics?

[Midwesterner53]

Time for a lawsuit. Sue those on the board rather than the university or maybe both.

[real saxophonist]

Best I could tell in a cursory search, Mark the beatboxer is a white boy, so this doesn’t surprise me.

[Snowybear]

ACLJ will be all over this one.

-SB

[Verginius Rufus]

"Arabic numerals" were invented in India. So only Indians should be allowed to use them in mathematical calculations?

Should Christians be barred from singing the psalms because the authors were Jewish?

[lee martell]

I’m glad the writer of this article, Emma Arms, is bringing more attention for racial double standards, but the article is five or six times longer than it needs to be.
This is like holding someone’s physical Diary book. and trying to read the first 30 pages. Run ons, redundancy galore. But. as stated. I’m glad she was brave enough to bring it up for discussion.

[Steely Tom]

The only thing — the only thing — that keeps them from rolling cattle cars and building crematoria, is the Second Amendment. That's it. That's all.