To think Black Out nights in theatre ARE important

@PenguinLord

I have never denied the existence of racism but I think it is some ways a complex problem and it is not helpful to try and summarise racism in all its forms in terms of the simple narrative of white privlege.

if Japanese Americans are successful in a range socio-economic metrics they may be 'deemed' successful and therefore not felt the brake of white privilege. Acceptance is a more subtle concept and one harder to measure empirically - I think it is something possibly subjective. If an ethnicity say SE Asians can be shown as a demographic to be as equally successful as white people on a population level where is the white privilege?

I think acceptance is an actually interesting concept as it embraces more than skin tone or ethnicity and possibly is dependent on culture or the degree to which someone assimilates to a host culture. I think we bring in ideas of speaking fluently in the host country language, shared religion, education etc. which I think culture may actually be a factor that promotes a greater degree of discrimination than skin tone alone.

I honestly couldn’t care less. If the theatre thinks there’s a demand for this then crack on. But in all honesty I’m not a big theatre goer and a play about slavery doesn’t sound like something I’d personally enjoy so I’m losing absolutely nothing.

Thank you! Enjoy your day!

Theatre in London is generally doing really well, Harry Clarke and Nye to take just two examples. This production looks so tedious with nobody popular leading the cast, so I guess the show’s team need to push the P.R a bit more somehow - the black out thing obviously did fuck all.

Wonderful debating, bravo.

Oh well, am sure we will recover.

I find threads like this, that clearly want no discussion, only agreement, to be quite tiresome.

You don’t win an argument by just accusing all dissenting views as being racist although it is a common thing these days to try and do so. It simply screams ‘I am too thick to argue with you’.

As I have said before, I have no opinion on this particular issue really but thought this thread would provide an interesting read but alas no, just lots of people accusing others of racism with no actual basis. Yawn.

How, exactly?

😀

How does it stoke racial tensions

Does it remind racist people that they have forgotten to be racist recently so they better get on with being so

It’s divisive and stokes racial tensions IMO.

Not my experience at all, I love going to the theatre and it's always packed out when I do.

The entire theatre industry is on its arse atm. It’s not just this play that’s suffering

I read a breakdown of the plot and thought it sounded fucking awful.

i was hoping for something that might be challenging and thought-provoking but the plot just sounds awful. Bizarre, unpleasant, and divisive - I really struggle to see the appeal of it.

And I say that as someone who loves the theatre and enjoys controversial and challenging themes.

Well it appears from ticket sales that actually nobody wants to see the play whether they are black, white or purple.
Availability is good for every single performance

I cant remember if Eminem being accused of cultural appropriation when he released his album.

He was very heavily criticised for being a white rap artist, in particular from the fellow rappers who were not as good (or at least didn’t sell as much).

As to the OP, I would have thought that any kind of segregation would go against inclusivity but as someone who doesn’t attend the theatre (because I don’t want to, Im neither a minority or poor - as people seem to think these are the only reasons people don’t go - some of us just don’t like it) I don’t have a particularly strong opinion either way.

I suppose if you are trying to drum up publicity for your play then it’s a good way to go about it.

https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Success%20Story,%20Japanese%20American%20Style%20(article)/

Also when considering white privilege let's think about the Japanese American experience An ethnicity which is now successful in the US with good educational attainment, good life expectancy etc

However during WW2 Japanese Americans were literally put into concentration camps and American opinion was too few nuclear weapons were dropped on Japan, Japanese people were utterly dehumanised.

What has changed in 80 years. Why hasn't white privilege held back American Japanese after being an utterly oppressed and vilified race in the 40s?

@PenguinLord

I think you can see with Beyonce what may be considered as a black women doing extremely well in a genre associated with white people i.e. country currently (which is great).

I think though that racial crossover of genres maybe works one way with white people getting accused of cultural misappropriation if they go into certain genre of music perhaps rap.

I suppose I was trying to point out that if we are using simplistic racial divided such as white/colour then invariably you will get people that are hard to place in these binary categories. Dua Lipa is white but given her Kosovan Muslim heritage may wish to identify herself with some of the prejudice faced in the UK (who knows).

Great post @mids2019 To sum it up. It's all very complicated!