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1. Mixed Media Watch - tracking media representations of mixed people on 15 Jul 2006 at 11:55 am

   […] Is blackface in Japan racist? More blackface and whiteface… now on Tyra! Blackface outside the U.S. Blackface in the theater Why young people *won’t* be solving racism anytime soon Oprah gets in on the race-trading game Blackface and whiteface coming to FX in March Blackface and yellowface on America’s Next Top Model Blogosphere: spotlight on Reappropriate Yellowface, coming soon to a big screen near you Dude, where’s my white privilege? Take 2: “Blackface Jesus” Blackface and yellowface on America’s Next Top Model […]

Comments

1. Lyonside wrote:

   This seems to be an example of people producing/directing a show a certain way JUST to be shocking and avant-garde.

   Reminds me of the “100 things i will not do when directing a Shakespeare play” lists that make the email and Net rounds from time to time. Example from here (http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/49536): “I will not decide that Helen of Troy in Troilus and Cressida is actually a sports car, nor will Pandarus do lines of cocaine off of her.” OR even more appropriate: “Casting a black Desdemona alongside a black Othello is kind of missing the point a bit.”

   By changing outfits to some amalgam of traditional Asian and African dress they’re missing a huge POINT of the play: To a primitive society that has been affected by European/American/Western imperialism, the Coleman Porter uniform would look like an imperial/military uniform, thus enhancing the reputation of the “magical” man who becomes their leader/oppressor… that same uniform in the time the play was written branded Emperor Jones as a servant of white folks, just as his skin color branded him as inferior and a “born” servant of white society. This production seems to have jettisoned the irony in favor of getting attention.

   To f*** with that just gets my theater hackles up - it’s one thing to genderbend if it fits the show or gives the show MORE meaning; or even to show that gender doesn’t matter. It’s another to throw so much crap on the stage that the message and meaning are obscured - what are people paying attention to more: the anachronistic costumes, the blackface, or the damn play?

   Posted 03 Apr 2006 at 10:55 am ¶

2. justin wrote:

   I haven’t seen the play and I’ve never heard of it or the author, so I’m not defending anything . But there are lots of paintings of Negroes dressed like the lady in the picture, they’re in bath houses with big brass urns and other exotic treasures. Some people like to emphasize the best things in their culture but you cant treat racism that way, we shouldn’t dismiss things because they don’t make sense or overestimate them because they do. I get really annoyed about Chinoiserie and japonism, because going into such specific associations gives too much credit to those objects and their creators. I believe there was a time and there still are places when any old other will do to help some people get off and there is nothing you can do to stop it, exept maybe tear yourself apart.
   My family eats off willow china, no one questions or doubts the authenticity and no one laughs at the perversity.

   Posted 03 Apr 2006 at 1:33 pm ¶

3. John wrote:

   Eugene O’Neil’s “Emporer Jones” was a ground-breaking play for 1920 w/ it’s elements of race, religion, psychology & Darwinism.
   O’Neil was sympathetic of the black American man’s plight; but being a white writer in the 1920’s, O’Neil’s upbringing shaped his portrayals of black characters (I remember characters being described as “ape-like”).

   Valk’s gimmick: a woman in reverse-drag and in blackface, illustrates that she’s playing an actor who’s trapped in a racist caricature created by O’Neil. (I think.)
   As for the Kabuki gear and giesha-like choreography… I have no idea.
   I mean, this IS the Wooster Group. Their audience is almost all white, upper-class hipsters, who congratulate themselves for being forward thinking in art & politics… (Yikes! Was that a hasty generalization?)

   Posted 03 Apr 2006 at 4:15 pm ¶

4. Adrianna wrote:

   Did we go back to the 1920 ? I did not get the memo. Are we also going back to White Actors ” playing Black people. or Asians Or Latins? Do Actors of color need to worry ? lol. I know it is a joke it has to be? If I can remeber it wasn’t easy being a person of color in the 1920’s. This trend needs to stop now !!

   Posted 03 Apr 2006 at 11:57 pm ¶

5. site admin wrote:

   Lyonside and John,

   Thanks so much for your insights into the play! This is why I love MMW–I always learn so much from our readers’ comments!

   CVK

   Posted 04 Apr 2006 at 5:10 am ¶

6. Lyonside wrote:

   Adrianna:
   You know how black (and other minority) actors and especially black (and other minority) women often say that there are few good roles in Hollywood? Seems like it’s epidemic in theater as well.

   Posted 04 Apr 2006 at 9:41 am ¶

7. Anonymous wrote:

   Male Asian American actors (APA/Indian) can say they have fewer opportunities in Hollywood and theater than any other minority group.

   Posted 04 Apr 2006 at 7:36 pm ¶

8. Lyonside wrote:

   Absolutely agree, Anonymous…

   Posted 04 Apr 2006 at 9:33 pm ¶

9. John wrote:

   La MaMa ETC presented a bare-bones adaptation of “The Emperor Jones” earlier this year. No video screens, no FX. Just a stage. WITH ACTUAL BLACK ACTORS.

   The company got great reviews, but ya know the Lower East Side could give a crap.

   Posted 06 Apr 2006 at 8:09 pm ¶

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