February 5, 2010

White theatre blogsphere keeps getting it wrong.

Maybe White theatre blogosphere (with the exception of Scott and Isaac), really just doesn't get it.

Despite that this leg of the conversation started as a personal attack against me (which I refuse to respond to), only 3 people, Isaac, Scott, 99, have even so much as acknowledged that I am a real person with real feelings that can be hurt. Everyone else wants to talk about "the dialogue" (which usually means a handful of White people talking to each other and talking at people of color). It pretty much goes like, "Yeah, it's pretty shitty what Garvey said to RVCBard, but whatever - it's more important that we discuss the discussion!"

This is exactly what I talked about only 3 days ago:

My friends of color are skeptical of those of us who are white and talk about change and diversity. We have made mistakes over the years: have promised action and stayed with discussion. We have atched our own backs first and those of our colleagues or friends of color only after we have made sure we have gotten what we needed. Many of us have come to the table with the paternalistic idea of "helping the oppressed," of bringing our beneficence to the struggling masses of common folks. We have done this n the polite guise of community change, of foundation aid, of board membership, and we have done it imagining that we are bestowing great good on those incapable of getting it for themselves. We have come with condescension, false promise, and little follow-through. We have come with limited time to work things out, to disagree, or to argue. Rather, we often comei n a hurry to bestow and get out, go home, head back to our own neighborhoods.
With this discussion, it's the same thing all over again. Do you recognize any of this?

Indeed, the most consistent failure of White theatre artists throughout this and similar discussions has been their insistence upon talking. Talking to, talking about, even talking over. There's a lot of worry and lamentation and righteous anger going around, but it all seems to be so much pissing in the wind because I rarely see - at least on the theatre blogosphere - any real engagement with the very people affected most by the state of things - theatre artists of color. I see a one-off post every now and then, expressing the appropriate amount of progressive ideas, but no real effort to connect with us. What, are we not important enough? Too small potatoes? Our work lacking artistic sophistication? For real, I've been more or less begging for some of you to listen to me, to respond to me, to engage with me. I don't even need all the fingers on one hand to count the number of people who have done so, whether online or in real life. Seriously, what am I to make of all this talk and invisible back-patting when the closest examples in my own life all too often illustrate the very points they're making?
Do you really not see how completely fucked up this whole conversation is?

For once, it would be nice to have discussions about race to stop approaching racism as though we're talking about Those Other White People. Some of the stuff I'm reading is doing the exact same thing I talked about nearly a year ago. I'm not talking about a random jerk I don't know who decided to go out of his way to talk shit about me on the internet. I'm talking about the very people reading, writing, and responding. I'm probably talking about you.

And you don't (or won't) see it. I can talk about motivations as to why, but trust me in that what I come up with does not make you come out looking squeaky clean. In a way, it's more painful a realization to me than the actual words and actions (or lack thereof) themselves.

9 comments:

  1. oh, rvc, i'm so sorry. are you okay? sending virtual alcohol, cookies, cups of tea, hugs, offers to go and slug the bastard--whatever it is that helps--your way.

    and the irony of this happening while you're trying to take a hiatus from f-ed up discussions on race elsewhere, well, that irony is not lost on me.

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  2. Julia,

    Thanks. The booze and cookies are going to help a lot.

    the irony of this happening while you're trying to take a hiatus from f-ed up discussions on race elsewhere, well, that irony is not lost on me.

    I know, right? Maybe I should just change my name to Irony.

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  3. Strategy, not tactics, right?

    It's OK to burn the village in order to save it -- hurt real people in order to make a point -- then get mad when called on it?

    It's like a flare-up sacrifice was required, because what was discussed these past weeks was so dangerous. The necessity of institutional theatre should be reconsidered, but oooh, black people's perceptions of racism are problematic, again -- *that* we can do something easy about.

    I know your injury is yours. I hope I'm not adding to it by thinking out loud how these attacks keep those in power exactly where they want to be -- looking down.

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  4. Let me go on a tangent for a second. I am teaching a course on the Harlem Renaissance, and included is a section on sports during the Renaissance and beyond (the Harlem Rens and the Harlem Globetrotters, for instance). We watch a documentary called "The Journey of the African-American Athlete." And the thing that comes across, perhaps unintentionally, is that every time we "let" African-Americans into an area, they end up whooping white peoples' ass, so we have to change the rules to prohibit them from playing. So, for instance, black jockeys in the 1910s started to win a huge percentage of races, so what did the Jockey Club do? Prohibited black jockeys from riding. Same with segregation in basketball, football, baseball, boxing.

    Now we've figured out a better way to keep African-Americans out of the game: treat them like a problem. DuBois initiated this in 1905 with "The Souls of Black Folk", but white people have spun it to work for them. So first we don't do black plays, then we create "diversity slots" which, essentially imply that we're doing it out of good-heartedness. The effect of this is to verify that all the white plays are there because they deserve to be there -- they don't need no diversity slot.

    So we create these structures, we make the game so complicated that it is almost impossible to navigate, and then we shake our heads when somebody explodes in anger or demands to just be listened to and taken seriously. We take control of the conversation, because clearly these black people can't see the complexities themnselves -- they need our Big White Brained help!

    I'm not sure what I'm saying, except that I'm trying to listen to YOUR and 99's conversation, rather than trying to co-opt it for my own purposes. It is hard, because I have lots of opinions! But still...

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  5. Nothing excuses what Garvey said.

    The comments won't let me cut and paste, but a few days before my post on the flyer Ropo sent me, I wrote a post "Mom and Charlotte" that pretty much sums up my thoughts on him.

    I haven't been online enough to write anything coherent since his post about you, but there are more than three people who think you're a real person.

    I'm not in Brooklyn so I can't engage with you other than what I've read of your work or online.

    Though sometimes it's hard for me to know if it's about you, or if it ain't about you it ain't about you; my initial reaction was to leave an angry comment on his post.

    But that's exactly what he wants, and my worry was that he would keep attacking you in response.

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  6. I'm not sure what I'm saying, except that I'm trying to listen to YOUR and 99's conversation, rather than trying to co-opt it for my own purposes.

    Thanks. That's pretty much all I've been asking. As someone on LiveJournal said:

    I'm always humbled by how little it takes to have a meaningful, respectful dialogue with fans of color, how little they expect of me. The overwhelming majority of FOC I've met only want me to listen, accept their interpretation of their own experiences, and show willingness to learn. To ask intelligent questions, to be polite, to treat them like humans who are part of my community. When I do those simple things, they are boundlessly patient educating me even though it's not their job.

    But that's exactly what he wants, and my worry was that he would keep attacking you in response.

    I know. It's the reason why I won't link to the post. But the good thing about bigots is that they're easy to spot, and therefore easier to deal with. It doesn't make what they do less destructive, but at least you can catch them in the act.

    I grew up in Klan country, so I was well aware of people (as in I knew their names) who hated me just because I exist. What made it bearable was that I had support from my parents and a few teachers who saw that and did what they could to minimize the damage. They weren't entirely successful, but the fact that someone acknowledged something very wrong with what was going on kept me from internalizing it.

    Hence the need for White allies.

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  7. Now we've figured out a better way to keep African-Americans out of the game: treat them like a problem.

    Tell me about it.

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  8. There's being clueless, willfully obtuse, and just flat out malicious and racist.

    Garvey proved himself the latter. Probably my favorite nugget was when he asserted that black people are on the frontline of homophobia.

    Apparently he didn't get the memo that Prop 8 fallout shit had played out.

    Because obviously the only gay people in existence (that matters to him) are white males. Because heaven forbid any of us both be queer and POCs.

    He was better off keeping silent. But now that he's run his mouth, he's overplayed his hand and everyone can easily see him for what he is.

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  9. I don't know what's going on, but I wanted to say I'm listening, and to offer support. I'm sorry you're hurting.

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