Okay, lets try this again... I wondered how long my last post - TopicsExpress



          

Okay, lets try this again... I wondered how long my last post would survive, and simply illustrates that we are WAY too hypersensitive about racial slurs these days, to the point that we cant even allow such slurs to be said, written, etc. So I am re-posting sans the use of the actual words (and maybe this posting will live to see another day)... In the overly PC world we live in, with the Eggshell Generation firmly in place to cry racist over ANY direct or indirect racial or ethnic slur that might (perish forbid) offend somebody (anybody?), can WE, as playwrights, write plays about Black people if we are NOT Black, about Latinos if we are NOT Latino, etc.? And, yes, that was the worlds longest run on sentence. Youll also note that I used Black, not the more PC African American, because I have never liked African American, especially since (officially) Charlize Theron is African American (just like Russians are Asian Americans). But getting back to the point... Would we be allowed to tackle a play with predominantly ethnic characters warts and all, or would we be called racist if a white playwright were to write a play with Black characters and have other characters in the play use derogatory slurs for Black people and NOT have the PC world cry FOUL? How would you set a play in 60s Mississippi involving Blacks & Whites without having some characters use the dreaded N-word and have any semblance of realism? Why do theaters (these days) shrink at doing plays like To Kill a Mockingbird simply because the N-word is used? Why is it okay for me, as a Hispanic, to write a screwball comedy about a male, Mexican, phone bank worker and call it: Line Juan and get away with it, but Id be the biggest bigot since Archie Bunker if I was White and wrote it? Can you only address ethnicity in your play if it is your OWN ethnicity being explored? Have we gone so far down the PC road that we MUST sacrifice authenticity in our works of fiction, and the freedom to take on ANY subject on ANY culture on the altar of Political Correctness? Thoughts? Or should I say repeat thoughts, as I didnt get to READ any of the comments posted on the original (purposely more inflammatory) post, due to the EXACT problem Im trying to address. And what is most bothersome about this whole issue of words and who is ALLOWED to use them is the very REAL truth that weve worked very hard to clean up the outside, to never SAY or WRITE an ethnic or racial slur, but inside... I believe this society isnt only just AS racist and unrelentingly xenophobic as its ever BEEN, but underneath the political correctness... Is MORESO. Perhaps we should start freaking out LESS about the use of a forbidden word and more about both blatant and surreptitious actions.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 18:48:24 +0000

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