Soul Searching (quite long)

I’ve been struggling with my own reaction to the Sandoval-Sanchez article in class last week. I needed time to distance from my own self, I guess, and to evaluate why I had such a visceral, vehement outburst.
Partly, it was my bias against musical theatre. I appreciate and enjoy it and realize it can give voice to real experiences and even the human condition. Simply, though, I see it as neither an arbiter nor a polished mirror of society. I must, also, admit I’ve not been to a musical for a very long time.
That being said, the points concerning society and race in Sr. Sandoval-Sanchez’s article rang more than true for me. I did not want to say his points are illegitimate and this “uppity” non-whiter other should get over it and assimilate to the golden Caucasian standard. I have spent the vast majority of my adult artistic life living with and among black folks (yes, I know “African-American” is the preferred and enlightened term, but I’m a product of the 70’s and I operate out of the sociological definition) and I had enough humility to keep my mouth shut, listen with my heart and learn.
I understand, better than most white Americans, how subtly racism infests in the heart and mind and it certainly does not always manifest in classic “white supremacy” (e.g. the KKK, George Wallace, etc.). I am happily married to a beautiful, strong, proud black woman and am raising three “mixed” children in a society that has made great strides but still has much that needs to be addressed. I am more worried how to help my children straddle the false “racial divide” than whether some idiot racist thinks singing “America” to a Latino is tantamount to holding hands during a rousing chorus of “Kum By Ya.” But, I realize it’s the equivalent to someone saying to my wife “I just watched Roots. I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through and now I understand.” I would be angry, too, if I heard such dribble.
So, let me say this: we white males have to make a conscious, purposeful effort to find ways to perceive the world and our society outside of our cultural mind-set and standards. This is difficult. I’ve spent an adulthood noticing the emphasized absence of a large segment of our national history and society, yet I still become infected with the cultural supremacy this country operates on. This aesthetic applies to theatre material that is race- as well as gender-specific. Can I, as a man, truly do justice to a staging of The Trojan Women? Can I direct a truly resonant and authentic version of August Wilson? Women and “non-white others” are expected to understand the dominant culture; those of us of that cultural standard do not need to understand it, we just live it. There’s the difficulty. We have to relearn and that can be frightening and threatening.
But, we must make the effort. The world is becoming more and more “global” and the human experience is human and a byproduct of humanity- not of the false social construct of “race.”