Faculty Commentary: Candace Taylor on Cancel Culture in the Arts
Candace Taylor | September 16, 2021
Ruby Jane Moser
Photograph of Candace Taylor.
I’ve been disgusted lately while watching the news about efforts in Texas to prevent Critical Race Theory from being taught in public schools. Several states are looking to glom onto this effort if it gets through the courts. What disgusts me is the fact that none of the people loudly protesting have any real idea what CRT is. Once again, as Black people finally begin to be heard, white people immediately start trying to figure out how to make it stop. Unfortunately, here at WWC, a small group of malcontents is attempting to interfere with and silence the voices of Black people once again.
A student told me last night of an incident she witnessed on her way to audition for this fall’s production of Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. She said that she saw another student walking toward Kittredge when someone shouted out, asking where they were going. The student said they were going to audition for the play. The other person yelled back, “Don’t audition for that play. It’s racist and it has a pedophile in it.”
First of all, this play is not racist. Here’s how I know: I am Black. I don’t direct or teach racist plays. Black playwrights don’t write critically acclaimed racist plays. Some uncomfortable Wilson students apparently want to mute/moot these voices and the voices of anyone who wants to perform in the play. Appropriate is intended to make you uncomfortable and was chosen for that reason — to cause understanding and empathy, and very possibly, change. Those of you who play at allyship and perform acceptance, or are racists, this play is not for you. This play is for open minds, for people seeking truth and equity. This play is for thoughtful people who can tolerate being criticized. This play is for people strong enough to witness a fictional story that explores a circumstance in which they might experience themselves as complicit. No one likes that. The enlightened can take the discomfort.
The play has received serious critical attention.
From the Theatre Times, 24th Aug 2019:
Jacobs-Jenkins cleverly sets up the possibility of hope for the damaged members of this white family, who live in a land whose history is soaked in the blood of slavery. Then, like an adjudicating angel, he denies each of them the forgiveness and understanding they crave. You could say that this is one black playwright’s revenge on a theatre genre that has often ignored the black experience. Instead, he offers a sobering picture of the way racism is handed down the generations, and also how psychological damage is also inherited. In the end, he suggests, family is an illusion, just a bunch of mismatched memories, and this seems utterly appropriate. - Aleks Sierz
This play is an important opportunity for our campus to let Art teach. I will not be bullied by cowards who don’t know what they’re protesting, or who they’re censoring. Those students who have taken aim at this play make no public statements, or principled condemnations; they just sneak around the fringes, spreading their toxic ignorance to other people who are too frightened of being “canceled” to push back. I think the students who have agreed to appear in the play and perform these characters for others’ edification and entertainment are brave souls, and they should be commended for their hard work and dedication.
I am enough of a teacher, however, to want the haters to have the courage of their assumed convictions and speak with me about their reasons for trying to sabotage a campus production. How is that in any way helpful to your community? What is your backroom protest designed to promote?
You might notice I haven’t mentioned the pedophile thing. That’s because the mention of pedophilia is used in the play to bring the characters up short during an argument. The playwright knows that the very mention of the word will make his audience squirm in their seats. Jacobs-Jenkins has woven a psycho-socio net in which to catch his audience, and their lack of comfort with the subject matter is exactly what he wanted.
Those of you who don’t feel the need to censor Art should come see the play. It is not about racism (though what would be wrong with a play about racism?). It is about a family whose members are haunted by the past. Personally, I think this campus is brave enough to face one small story of our (shared) American history.
Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
November 12 & 13 @7:30
November 14 @2:30
Socially distant in Kittredge Theatre
