| re: PlayPenn's Artistic Director and Associate resign over "expectations racial and cultural competence" | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 02:47 pm EDT 07/24/20 | |
| In reply to: re: PlayPenn's Artistic Director and Associate resign over "expectations racial and cultural competence" - BigM 10:45 pm EDT 07/23/20 | |
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| There's a lot to unpack here: These weren't "political" concerns. That word gets tossed around a lot by white people when we are talking about the rights and values of BIPOC people, as if the only way to understand white people investing in BIPOC people is as a political action, rather than a humanitarian one (or just, you know, decency). But I would not expect someone who refers to those concerns as "minority BS" to grasp that concept. An artist can be a person of integrity and dedication and also protect a sexual predator and repeatedly do racist things. People are complicated, that's the backbone of Western theater. You've experienced a person in a way where their integrity was on display; the people who called for changes at PlayPenn have experienced them in situations where their integrity was not on display. That doesn't mean that one part or the other is wrong. And again, you don't know what actually went down, just as I don't know. We've read public statement, and we've heard things through the grapevine (if it's true that PlayPenn was unblinding submissions, that's another reason to support leadership change), but we have not yet heard an official account. Until we do, we can't say with certainty whether these leaders acted with integrity. You are rushing to clear their names without the facts; I am simply holding space to presume that proper steps have been taken until we know otherwise. It's interesting that you're defending one person's integrity while attacking another's. This is clearly hard for you to believe, but I do think it's shameful and reprehensible to program a slate of mostly white playwrights and then broadcast into the world an image of diversity and inclusion. That's investing in BIPOC artists purely for the optics. That's virtue signaling. That deserves condemnation (which is the meaning of the word "reprehensible") and should be a cause of soul searching (which is generally driven by feelings of shame). It's also surprising, as the roster of PlayPenn alumni suggests that they have a much better track record of supporting BIPOC writers, unless the list of alumni on the website are also curated in a way to give the impression they are more dedicated to BIPOC writers than they actually are. Unfortunately, their integrity as an organization has been called into doubt by evens that they acknowledge are true, so I don't how much I can trust them. To the extent that I can be conscious of it, I work against taking positions that are about signaling my virtue. Virtue signaling is real - just look at PlayPenn's actions - but it's also true that the term virtue signaling is used much like the term "political" - to discredit the real experience of human beings who are invested in building an equitable, antiracist society. It's easy to be cynical and presume that I'm just performing, rather than actually consider that someone you know and like has done harm to other human beings. It's easy to presume that I'm operating from a loyalty to my political tribe, rather than calling out injustice. And I want to be very clear: I am not one to cast stones without self-reflection. I have written for years on this forum that pretty much everyone is racist to some degree, that we are all capable of racist action, and that I include myself in that category. I don't pretend to be outside the problem, and I don't pretend like everyone has to do work that I'm not willing to do. If I did, that would truly be some BS. |
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| Previous: | re: PlayPenn's Artistic Director and Associate resign over "expectations racial and cultural competence" - BigM 10:45 pm EDT 07/23/20 |
| Next: | Change.org Petition detailing some of the behavior and abuses - Singapore/Fling 01:32 pm EDT 07/20/20 |
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