*Parents are outraged after discovering that the cast of a high school production of “The Wiz” is all white.
Originally cast with a slew of black stars as a direct response to the white version of “Wizard of Oz,” officials at an upstate New York school is being blamed for not marketing the musical to incorporate a more diverse (aka black) group of students.
One parent, Letrice Titus, said she was first made aware of the issue when her daughter, who is black, was cast as a member of the ensemble, rather than as a lead.
North Central Syracuse School District superintendent, Kim Dyce Faucette responded to the issue with concern, but plans to investigate before pulling the plug.
“Without a doubt, being an African-American woman, I can definitely relate,” Faucette told NBC/CBS affiliate CNY Central News. “Having said that, I’m not prepared at this point to pull the race card until I get all of the facts and can then make an informed decision.”
Titus is encouraging a more sensitive response from the school, including a recasting or simple acknowledgement that there’s an issue.
“They have black talented kids at the school, but they chose to put them at the ensemble because they’re not theater kids. They should have made a collaborative effort based on diversity, cultural awareness, [and] sensitivity. How are the black kids going to feel when they see a play?”
The proof AND truth is in their actions…..why….the…..FK do you neeeeeed a “White version of the Wiz, when The Wiz was a Black version of the White…Wizard Of Oz!?? Answer…..b/c the Bkack version was IS BETTER than their version, & now just like in all other walks/forms of art?, they’re trying to steal “this” TOO from Us!! You cain’t even fiiiiiiiiind a White person who “acts” “White” anywhere!! Well minus Mit Romney etc..(& they are the minority Whites!!)! We should block this shyt?; JUST like they did the Black version of…Porgy & Bess!!! Amen?, aaaaaaMEN!!!
steal what? . . DIDN’t you just say WE got/jacked it from the white version!?!? THEY HAD A WHITE PORGY AND BESS!?!? LoL!!
Ok woman 1st!!?, you’z a FOOL!!!
)))! But see…..they ain’t satisfied with their “White” version!!!, so….they g’on “rip off the flava” of the BLACK version!!! Why don’t they just make a remake of “their” White shyt!!?? C/z that shyt is fkn……plaaaaaaayed!!! ALL “Whiteness” is played!!, & they knooooow it. “That’s” why mofos are walkin round jackin “Our” shyt!! Outty/Hollah!
Wait, so the kids who have in the past been involved in theater at the school are all white (based on ‘They have black talented kids at the school, but they chose to put them at the ensemble because they’re not theater kids.’). . .meaning the people with the most experience and who probably have already been ensemble cast members in previous productions at the school happen to be white. . .i.e. the people who paid their dues to get lead roles (at least that’s how it worked at my high school, regardless of your ethnic identity) happen to be white . . . . but the staff in charge of selecting a production wanted to do ‘The Wiz’ . . . so those kids who may have worked hard for years to earn their talent and place in a production should be overlooked because of the color of their skin? I’m sorry. . . what? It’s nice that the mother of a newcomer to acting thinks her child should be the star because of the color of her skin and all, but isn’t that contrary to any concept of equality? Moreover, what the author and the other comments seem to suggest is that black kids should not be cast in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and white kids should not be cast in ‘The Wiz’ because they were written by their racial equals. I doubt that anyone would even notice if there was an all black cast for ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at some other school, but clearly it is racist if the opposite is the case. Or how about you don’t decide which version of the story to use until you’ve cast the characters . . . how about if the cast were split in some way? Would you then want the black actors reading from ‘the Wiz’ and the white ones taking lines from the original work? (Read the following as sarcasm) Certainly we don’t want mixing of the races, why that could lead to all sorts of confusion. . . imagine the difficulty a mixed-race individual would have reading half their lines from one work, and half from the other. . . .and heaven forbid they should cast any asians, we’d have to find some oriental version of the story for them to read! (end sarcasm).
If there were black students who had been regularly involved in theater in the past overlooked I could understand some outrage, but this is clearly just some child’s mother trying to force her darling baby into the spotlight at the expense of other students by whatever means necessary. What, beyond the color of her skin, makes her child more qualified than her classmates?
The racism comes in, when they decided to exclude “Us”/Black people” from a “BLACK” project ie…”culture jackin”! Now….in a perfect world?, there would just be a “multicultural” production of either The Wiz or Wizzard! But see….”they” would let that “equality” you speak of….breathe, due to their insecurity of INferiority! But …..I feel you though.
So you think it’s wrong for people to use anything created by someone of another culture? Are your ancestors from England? Because you seem to speak English. . . . what about your religion? If you practice any of the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and aren’t Middle Eastern you’re ‘culture jackin’.
Tell Tiger Woods only Scots can play golf, and Eminem only blacks are allowed to rap. I’m sure they would gladly hand over their fortunes once you explain to them the error of their ways.
Who is really insecure here? The people who admire the work of someone from another culture so much that they embrace it (while giving full credit where credit is due, even if it could be considered plagiarism, seeing as how the author of ‘The Wiz’ ripped off the entire story) or the people who are so scared of having their identity stolen that they can’t see that admiration as a compliment? If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, isn’t the fact that ‘The Wiz’ was ever written a compliment to the original work? Similarly, isn’t a bunch of white kids in upstate New York performing a ‘black’ musical a compliment to the quality of the work created by African-Americans? If you see a white kid listening to hip-hop, do you rip the headphones off their head and tell them ‘THAT’s OUR MUSIC!’?
I’m sorry, but that all seems like bigotry to me. . . we certainly don’t live in a perfect world, but can you say that your idea of ‘culture jackin’ contributes toward a more perfect world, or a less perfect one?
“Little Magic” syndrome strikes again
Sorry…..they “won’t” let equality etc….!
Your seeeeerious aren’t you!? Wow! Ok again…& I KNOW I’ve been VERY clear on this point….it’s the discrimination against the very people who were the originators OF said art! Like….WTF is there even a neeeeed or desire for an all “White” version of this, when there already IS one called….The Wizzard Of Oz!?? Why remake “Our” version, when you got your own!?? And “compliment” you say? HAYil naaaaaw that ain’t a compliment, & don’t EVVA try to insult the intelligence of ANY of “MY” people! Check it..does a woman who “knows” some B purposely bought the “same fkn dress” SHE alresdy has, and then “claims to have had it 1st”, when she TAUGHT HER ABOUT DRESSING, think “that” shyt is is a…”compliment” ? FOH! And yo…”my” people were just fiiiiiiiine living “where & HOW” we were living, until YT came & did exaaaaactly what we’re discussing now….STEALING OTHER people’s shyt!! Look at all the “well paid” DJ’s out there…most of them are NOT Black. Now….go ask GMFlash, Kid Capri, etc… if DAT shyt is a “compliment”! Orrrrr…..the way yall have consistently/notoriously taken Our icons/art “Cleopatra,Jazz,Rock etc.. & have recast AND relabeled the shyt as a…European thang!!?? Outchoe fkn miiiiiind!?? Compliment my fkn ass, dat shyt is WTF I initially saaaaid it is…”culture jackin”. But see…people like you?, tell yourselves the shyt is “ok”, to justifyyyyyy y’all’s dirt. HTF you g’on have YO hand in MY cookie jar, & think “I” won’t recognize “MY” cookies!!?? Yo…I guess this shyt is in yall’s..DNA, cain’t shake it if you fkn triiiiiiiied!!!, kid. SMDH! And yo ass prolly thinks that “boat ride” was a fkn…”nice gester”, huh!? Tell yuh what, since you “going all hard FOR the English”? (Winking at “MY” peeps!), .the next time y’all wanna “build” some shyt?, use yo OWN fkn hands & stay off other people’s land! That way……we won’t even be haaaaaaving this conversation. But?, I digress…..Outty!
You obviously didn’t understand my point. You also have a very narrow minded understanding of history. If we follow your line of thinking, which seems to be that anyone related to another group of people who have done wrong is immediately also guilty would condemn the entirety of humanity. Let’s assume for a moment that people of a given race only like music made by people of their own race within the US, it stands to reason that white musicians would always have a larger following than black ones, since there are far more white people than there are black people in this country. So if we follow your desire to segregate along racial lines what people are allowed to do, there would always be higher paid white musicians because there is a larger fan-base for them. That’s just math. There are many artists that defy this strange idea of yours. You really think that white people should only buy art created by black people, and should never try and create any art of their own that reflects the work of minority artists?
You really read a lot into my statement that wasn’t there. . .I don’t think any rational person considers the slave trade something positive, nor do I ‘go hard for the English’. I probably hate what they did to MY ancestors more than you can understand, since they nearly exterminated the language and people where most of my family comes from, not to mention creating a system built around rape, murder and forced migration that has left a very similar mark to what you are accusing me of. English was just an example of something that you are using (very poorly I might add) that was not created by your people (unless of course you do have some English ancestry, maybe you should test your DNA for the bigotry genes you seem to think all white people have). Believe it or not, Africans were neither the first, nor the only group subjugated by European powers. Is it really a competition to see who’s ancestors were hurt more? 400 years is a long time, but so is 1000 years.
I think you were the only one talking about ‘STEALING OTHER people’s shyt!!’ since performing a musical is not stealing. Again, when you perform art created by someone else, you don’t take it away from them. If a bunch of white kids perform ‘The Wiz’ it doesn’t prevent black kids from performing it, nor does it diminish the quality of the writing. Cleopatra certainly wasn’t blonde with blue eyes, but she probably wasn’t ebony skinned either, people from that region went through a great deal of genetic exchange, just as people from the Iberian peninsula and what are today the southern territories of Italy and Sicily did. There wasn’t some magic barrier that kept darker pigments in one area and lighter ones in another. Similarly, the Indian Ocean trade area (also called the Swahili Trade routes) led to the blending that is represented in the pigment and appearance of people from Ethiopia to Sri Lanka and from Yemen to Madagascar. You really need to study the world more, it isn’t simply ‘black’ and ‘white’, those are arbitrary and imaginary divisions.
As for female fashion rules, that seems like a strange thing to compare to rules for cultural exchange. Don’t you think it’s shallow and petty if a girl gets upset because she sees someone wearing something similar to herself? If she lacks self-worth to the point that this hurts her sense of self image isn’t she the one to blame for her own psychological issues? But, I digress.
Back to the real point, musicals don’t have a skin color. There is no ‘white’ version of the story and ‘black’ version of the story, there are two musicals written by people of different backgrounds at different times. They may appeal to one group or another more or less, but assigning obligatory racial guidelines to anything sounds more like Jim Crow Laws to me than it sounds like the act of an individual capable of looking past skin color. Maybe you want to travel back to the pre-Civil Rights era and reintroduce segregation, but I certainly don’t think that’s a good idea.
My family includes individuals of African, Asian and European (and maybe Native American, but the others for sure) ancestry, so don’t try to pretend you know who I am or what ‘people’ I represent, just because I don’t agree with your bigoted, narrow-minded and ignorant world view.
‘.it’s the discrimination against the very people who were the originators OF said art!’
Is it really beyond your comprehension how hypocritical your own statements are?
‘My people are entitled to borrow from other cultures, but your people are thieves for doing it!’ is what you are saying as far as I can tell, and that’s just stupid. Go read some literature, there are many authors of many ancestries that will show you how to articulate properly and how to form a coherent argument, perhaps you’ll learn something about the value of humanity, regardless of the color of their skin.
Look …mole/troll, FK all the long ass rhetoric! Being influenced is waaaaay different than….stealing/relabeling as your own. Bottom line?…”my” people don’t steal from y’all we IMPROVE the shyt y’all have thrown away/forgotten about, then?…y’all want it back, & all the while?, “We” don’t tell y’all….”you cain’t haaaaaave any”. Meanwhile…..YO thievin ass kind?, goes AROUND THE FKN WORLD fkn with/cherry pickin “other” people’s shyt, then have the fkn nerrrrrrve to call it…”American”. (apple pie, hamburger, hot dog, football pick ANY!!) And now with this production?, the same shyt applies. So….you can act like yo ass don’t recognize/understand WTF I’m stating “isn’t” fact?, but dat shyt doesn’t the reality OF these facts. Like I stated earlier…..”denial, lyin, cheatin, STEALin”?, is in y’all’s DNA. Now….take yo ass back to headquarters?, & tell them they owe yo “talkin point zombie” ass some “OT”, after all…this was a….Sunday. And…I’ll let hou know when We do the all Black version all….”Helen Of Troy” (but don’t hold yo breath/better yet? DO dat shyt!) Wah waaaaaah! Ps…but tell me dis, umm…..why DON’T y’all wanna be “White” anymorrrrrrre!?? Just curious. Hollah!
The way I read the article, it appears that all of a sudden when the theatre department decided to do a historically-black production, all the black students were thinking they’d be grandfathered in as leads? I think it speaks to the fact that black students need to get involved in extracurriculars as a symptom of their participation in all facets of student life, as opposed to just getting involved when it’s a black history month program. For once, I’m kinda siding with the would-be troll.
I agree. It reads as though the black students were not interested in theater, but showed up auditions when it was announced that theater club was putting on the Wiz. Of course the key roles are going to go to the kids who have been actively involved with the club. This is a none issue.
You are absolutely correct. I don’t understand the problem.
Hmm…..the “prollum eeaah?, why would YT even “want to” do a historically “Black” project and NOT involve…”BLACK” people in it!?? But yuh know?, what’s even more fascinating & MUCH appreciated?, is how things like this, reveal the Toms & racist ‘on this fkn site! Like…..what’s reeeeally so fkn “hard to understand”?…NUTHin, not NUTHin!!! (said like K. Williams!) The only ones who don’t “get it”?, are those who “don’t WANT” to get it, & kling to their DNA of either lovin massa?, or stealin other people’s shyt!! So on behalf of ALL Black people?, I say…”fk you & your “confusion”. Now…..did yuh “get” that!?? FOH!!
Why would the producers of the Wiz want to do a historically white project and not involve “WHITE” people in it? But the fact that you referenced Kat Williams in your post is an indicator that logic is not your strong suit, and trying to convince you to see the illogic nature of your postion is a total waste of time.
Sigh.