Summer is here! Kinda. We are experiencing a heatwave here in the City by the Inland Sea. We expect average high temperatures in the high sixties. Our temps have, before the last few of days have reached the mideighties.
Activities for the last week included a Zeilber event with The Milwaukee Rep. I did not facilitate. I joined as a participant. Again our client wanted to discuss racism and the role theater could take in promoting and bettering the discussion of racism. Was I happy being a participant? I'm Irish, for crying out loud. Of course, I wanted to comment.
The theater is populated with stand-out opportunities to confront racism. The Milwaukee regional theater scene is populated with actors and directors of color who can blow the walls down with exciting and engaging pieces that can love, enrage, and educate us about the Black Experience in American life. I previewed Neat, which showed the life of a young woman as she memorized her mentally damaged aunt and moving from the deep south to Northern NY state. It was subtle and nuanced. If you put yourself in this woman's place, you feel the differences she experienced versus your expectations as a white person.
Expectations of a white person are another bridge we white people have to cross. We will have a personal opportunity to discuss the reality of the day-to-day life of our sisters and brothers of color. We have seen time after time, year upon year, the difference that black people have to endure just because they are easily identifiable. Retail stores, restaurants, police, city officials, employers, school administrators. And politicians all have a different way of dealing with people of color than they do white people. Some of it constructed out of life experiences. However, I think most of it borne out of societal myths and misdirected generalization.
In our mythology, we have created the American Family. It's white. It consists of two people, a man and a woman, and their children. Typically they live in a single-family dwelling in a suburb. The kids go to the ideal school. Think of the TV shows of the sixties and seventies, Brady Bunch, Happy Day's, etc.
Historically, we know that lifestyle was infrequent. We know the problems of that era were never dealt with in those TV shows to any great extent for those of us who lived it. Nonetheless, that mythological stereotype still exists. More importantly to many people, that characterization never includes people of color except as maids, waiters, garbagemen, and low-level caregivers. For millions of people of color and white people, these mischaracterizations of the average American were only accessible on Television, certainly not in life.
The problem some white people have is that they won't let it go. For some reason, this myth has to prevail. This group of white people, who are very vocal, and in some cases, heavily armed, can't live without knowing that this image of the American family will continue to exist in reality and mythology.
Comments
Post a Comment