Cancel Watch: Cinderella at the Theater

AND IT CONTINUES...

I read an article this past week about a theater in Minnesota that canceled there production of Cinderella because they decided that there were just too many white people in the cast.  Ummmm...OK.  First here is the link to the article itself, if you want to check it out before getting into my thoughts.

Original Article Here

Let me explain explain what it is about the content of this article that is more than a little bit worrying.  The article says:

“Our hope in beginning the production process again with a new title will allow us to put into practice an intentional process based on the work we have been doing towards equity and inclusivity.” 

In the same statement, the theater announced that it will invite and pay for a [black, indigenous, or person of color] to analyze the makeup of the cast and how to make the show adequately “anti-racist.” 

“We believe this new process will allow us to tell the story in a rich way and allow us to live out our commitment to identity-conscious casting and becoming a more intentionally anti-racist theater,” the statement reads.  

Now let me start by saying that as a whole the idea of excluding people simply for the color of their skin, or because of the country they were born in, is absolutely wrong.  We as human beings should not be either excluding or including people for no other reason than the color of one's skin.  It's wrong, 100%.  The problem is, is that while everyone agrees that it's wrong to exclude people for their skin there's a lot of people who don't seem to understand that the opposite is also true.

What do I mean by this?  Choosing someone for no other reason than the color of their skin is just as wrong as excluding someone.  Unfortunately, that appears to be what the world has come to.  This is because in the act of including someone based on the color of their skin you are also actively excluding someone by the color of their skin.  "We are only going to choose someone who is A, which means we are excluding someone who is B."

This Theater in an attempt to have a "commitment to identity-conscious casting" and to be "intentionally anti-racist" they are saying they are going to be consciously  including and excluding cast members for the primary reason of their skin color.  I believe that people should be chosen for things because they are the best person for the job.  Whether that is physically, mentally, they are the most experienced or capable.  Ethnicity should not play a factor in anyone's decisions to choose someone for anything.  That should never be a factor.  

So, how about this theater make a statement saying they will be choosing the best actor to play a role no matter their race, religion, or sexuality.  Isn't that what inclusion is?  Why does our society say that it is wrong for someone to exclude people because they are black, but it's perfectly fine to exclude someone because they are white?  That really doesn't make sense to me, because we are constantly being told that it is wrong (it's racist, hateful, and disgusting) to exclude people because of the color of their skin.  Unless that person is white.  In today's climate it's perfectly acceptable to exclude people for being white, and that's not racist at all.

We are living in strange and crazy times.  Stayed tuned for more in the Cancel Watch series.  Let's see who the Mob wants to Cancel next.

Till Next Time,

Words by Ali