However, I mentioned color not because the US is any more racist than any
other society (see the Palestinian demands to label Zionism as racism, for
example and see the Northern Sudanese Arabs and Muslims STILL enslaving the
Southern Sudanese Christians and animists, not to mention the racial and
religious bigotry of Hindus and the racial animus of Japanese towards
Koreans and Ainu and the list goes on and on...) but because the role is
traditionally played as if being a Moor equals being black.
In Shakespeare's time, women never played women: boys did. The question of
whether a boy can play a woman never came up -- nor did the question of a
"real" Jew playing Shylock and so on.
Let me put forth a provocative thought that has just surfaced in my mind:
is race socially constructed? Can "racism" be a product of the perceptions
of those being oppressed, rather than a product of active thought in the
minds of the oppressors? Could racism be eliminated by the oppressed,
rather than by the action of the oppressors? Just a thought.
Timothy Lillie, Ph.D.
Department of Curricular & Instructional Studies
The College of Education
322 Zook Hall
The University of Akron
Akron OH 44325-4205
330-972-6746
> perhaps, because I am still racist even though I have tried to change.
> Sadly, I can't think of a famous black person in the US where color wasn't
> part of who he/she was -- but then, that's because the US is a racist
> society and color is always noticed (e.g., I noticed it in the remake of
> Cinderella even though "race" was irrelevant to the story). And Timothy
> noticed it by questioning the color of the character rather than of the
> actor ("However, he [Laurence Olivier] should not be excluded
> simply because
> of the color of his skin. After all, perhaps Othello was a light-skinned
> Moor, no?") but nonetheless assumed a "color-match" between actor and
> character.
>
> Lilah
________________End of message______________________
Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List
are now located at:
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.
|