Honesty about race

The experience, however, was not only memorable for the absurdity of my role. Since my first semester at Princeton, I have been impressed by the raw honesty of BAC Drama’s productions. The 2009 one-act portfolio, my introduction to the group, was original and provocative, dealing with complicated racial issues through student-written works. This year’s was equally powerful: Alex Baptiste ’13 and Abidemi Adenikinju ’13 compared the difficulties faced by light- and dark-skinned African-Americans in their one-act play; Elizabeth Cook ’13 performed a poem on black pride; Maya Reid ’12 recited a monologue by Sojourner Truth on the travails of black women.

BAC Drama’s creative approach and attention to race and blackness is unique in Princeton’s theater program. There are, at times, productions by race-neutral or “mainstream” theater groups that deal with racial issues on some level. But in mainstream shows, the discussion of race is almost always superficial, outdated or incidental to the piece as a whole. Last year the Princeton University Players did a production of “Ragtime,” a moving narrative centered around race relations in early 20th-century America. But the story adds little to contemporary discourse on the subject and is easy to swallow for audiences of any color. Compare this to the monologue performed by Brandon Bell ’11 in the BAC Drama show: He described a vision of a modern slave trade where Americans can “buy a negro” to “entertain friends at a party,” “portray the false image of diversity” or “roll that perfect joint for you.” You won’t hear lines like that at a Triangle show.

Some argue that Princeton’s various race-based organizations — including BAC Drama — encourage students to associate only with people who are like them, which leads to a kind of self-segregation. They lament that more “mainstream” organizations are lacking in diversity, because students are involved in their own racial communities rather than the Princeton community as a whole. But if it had not been for the explicit blackness of BAC Drama, students would never have been able to bring their creative ideas to fruition. As a space explicitly designed to grapple with black identity, BAC Drama gives students of all races the opportunity to speak, write and perform openly about issues that are taboo for mainstream discourse.

Could “Hot Ghetto Mess” have been presented as part of the Student Playwrights Festival or some other mainstream function? Could Bell’s monologue have been published as a satirical op-ed in The Daily Princetonian? Perhaps. The reception, however, might have been different.

One needs to look back only a few years to see the controversy caused by Asian-American ‘Prince’ staff members, who published an op-ed with racial humor similar to “Hot Ghetto Mess” in the annual joke issue. The article — which relied heavily on Asian-American stereotypes — was met with serious allegations of racism from a variety of sources, most notably the Asian-American Students Association. The content of the article, however, was equally “offensive” as “Hot Ghetto Mess” in terms of its use of stereotypes for comedic purposes. One could argue that the ‘Prince’ article was in poor taste while “Hot Ghetto Mess” has a more legitimate, socially aware purpose. But this kind of comparison is subjective and useless. The real difference between “Hot Ghetto Mess” and the ‘Prince’ article lies in the setting. If the ‘Prince’ op-ed had been presented as part of an Asian-American magazine, comedy troupe or one-act festival — such as BAC Drama’s — the response would have undoubtedly been different. Under other circumstances, the authors could have said exactly what they wanted to without the harsh and discussion-quashing accusations of intolerance or racism.

Too often, we prefer to acknowledge race and other uncomfortable subjects as little as possible, afraid to risk the kind of backlash that the ‘Prince’ writers endured in 2007. But race really does matter — as does sexuality, gender, religion, ethnicity, class, ability or anything else that might constitute a significant aspect of one’s identity. To pretend otherwise denies not only history, but also the present society in which all of these identities interact. We sometimes need to be with other people with an identity similar to our own in order to understand those identities better, to tackle issues such as race that are otherwise ignored. I am glad that groups like BAC Drama exist to do just that, and I am glad, as a white person, that I can participate honestly in this conversation about race.

Brandon Davis is a sophomore from Westport, Conn. He can be reached at bsdavis@princeton.edu.