Why are there so few black people in classical music?

[Ocelot II]

6. Music lessons and instruments are expensive; anyone who wants to play

in a major symphony orchestra (or their parents) will have to invest a lot in that process. Black and other POC have been historically disadvantaged financially, and families might be unable to afford to pay for the instruction and the instruments they would need. They have to start young. If a kid isn't exposed to classical music early they won't be able to acquire the skill to play it, and they'd have hear it at home or in school. I took piano lessons from a Black teacher back in the '60s; he was mainly a jazz musician but he knew the classical repertoire well enough to teach it. I have no doubt that there has been discrimination in this field, just as in every other, but there are some spectacular successes - Wynton Marsalis and the Kanneh-Mason family, for example - and I'm sure there will be more.