Crying racism where it so clearly does not exist is incredibly damaging -- because it trivializes the real examples of racism that do occur in this country.
Students at Columbia College Chicago are upset that white students were cast in the roles of Latino and Palestinian characters in a play — even though no Palestinian students auditioned.
The play, called HOME/LAND, is about the “the stories of Latinx and Palestinian immigration to America” and is “based on interviews with Chicago-based immigrants,” according to an article in The Chronicle, the school’s student newspaper.
The news source reports that the play’s (black) director, Theater Department associate professor Catherine Slade, ignored students’ issues with white actors being cast in Latino and Palestinian roles, made insensitive racial statements during production, and tried to change the script in ways that some felt perpetuated stereotypes about immigrants.
“From the get-go, it felt disrespectful,” Assistant Stage Manager Amy Gerwert-Valdez told The Chronicle. “It got to a place where nobody felt safe; no one was comfortable with her.”
“There was no trying to collaborate with us; there was no trying to see if [she was] doing the right thing. It almost felt like we were just being used as pawns,” another student and cast member, Sophia Alonzo, said. “It’s hard because these are real stories to our families and our background that were [not treated as] valid.”
Gerwert-Valdez said that among the racially insensitive things that Slade had said was a comment that Palestinian people “are just white people,” adding that Slade also had allegedly spoken badly about the cast in general. Another student and cast member, Gabriel Chinchilla, said that he had perceived insensitivity when white actors read lines in Spanish.
Columbia’s News Office released the following statement about the controversy to The Chronicle:
The Theatre Department is committed to providing students with opportunities to perform in diverse theatre productions. The ‘HOME/LAND’ script called for Latinx, Palestinian and Caucasian characters. All students who auditioned were cast in the production. However, not all of the students who auditioned were of the same race and/or ethnicity as the characters identified in the script. Indeed, no Palestinian students auditioned for the play, and as such, non-Palestinian actors were assigned to those roles. Several Latinx students who initially auditioned for the production didn’t pursue participation.
Now, I can admit that I was not actually present at any of this play’s rehearsals or reads, so I have absolutely no way of knowing whether Slade had truly been offensive or rude apart from the comments that were specifically listed. I am also not condoning the comments that were reported, if it is true that Slade did actually say them.
At the same time though, I truly believe that at least one of these students’ complaints — that white actors were cast to play Palestinian characters — to be completely absurd. Yes, it would obviously be better to give Palestinian students the opportunity to play Palestinian characters, but seeing as no Palestinian students tried out, what was Slade supposed to do? Summon a genie and wish for some of them to try out? Cancel the production altogether? Honestly, I am very unclear about what exactly they would have wished for her to have done in this case.
Racism against Palestinian and Latino people is unfortunately something that is still very real in this country. I am not denying that. In fact, the fact that it is so real is precisely why I have a problem with these students including some obviously absurd charges in their complaints about Slade. Clearly, Slade’s decision to not cast Palestinian actors in Palestinian roles was not one that was due to racism, because no Palestinian actors tried out, and I believe that crying racism where it so clearly does not exist is incredibly damaging — because it trivializes the real examples of racism that do occur in this country.
This story previously appeared in an article on The College Fix.