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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 17, 2016)
The Shedd Institute www.theshedd.org - 541.434.7000 Carl Woideck Jazz Heritage Project A Night of Blues & Ballads Friday Nov 18 The John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts Shedd Theatricals 2016 The purposes of higher education are to make students think; to inspire them; to teach them how on a bedrock of human- istic values to employ rhetorical effective- ness, insightful vision, and factually-logi- cally-scientifically-based evidence to solve gnarly, complex problems; to objectively and straightforwardly dissect extremely volatile issues — not to coddle and protect students from feeling offended. Lurching toward 80, I’ve paid heavy dues for my civil rights activities since I was a teen. Many have paid far heavier dues both before and since. Recognizing the vile effects of racism, we have long worked in numerous ways to counteract it. Racism’s poison, however, is strong and deeply rooted. I urge those calling for Professor Shurtz’s resignation despite her 34 years of dedicated and distinguished service to read Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Philip Roth’s The Human Stain. I say to them that what you demand is not what the Civil Rights movement was about, is about or should be about. If my saying so makes me, too, a racist in your eyes, then so be it. Jerome Garger Yachats BLACKFACE I would like to offer some clarity about a white university professor dressing as a respected black writer on Halloween. She was not alone in becoming someone she is not. Some were Darth Vader, children be- came old witches, men were women, poor were rich, many gentle souls were pirates. The magic of Halloween is transformation, going into the dark of the year. In more formalized venues like drag shows and theater, we also take great pains to become someone else. We change our gender, age, race, using wigs, makeup, put- ty, paint, costumes and altering our voic- es and gaits. This is great! Long live the theater! Also a shout-out of respect to our trans neighbors and friends who changed to become more themselves. If we want to forbid white impersonat- ing black because of the violence of whites against blacks, and because of hateful impersonations, we must also forbid men impersonating women, because of men’s violence against women, and the history of hateful impersonations, etc., etc. More important is the quality of the impersonation. The main question being: Is there respect? The professor impersonated a writer she respects. Let’s be gentle with each other, amass- ing our criticism and active resistance for real struggle. Kari Johnson Eugene HYPOCRITICAL REACTION While I share the disgust reaction to a University of Oregon professor wearing a blackface costume, I find the calls for her resignation to be hypocritical, especially coming from attorneys trained to defend the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitu- tion. I have experienced a similar disgust reaction to misogynistic and homophobic portrayals of women and gay people as be- ing dumb or limp-wristed queens, and have felt the urge to call for its censorship. However, my grandfather taught me that censorship based on disgust can be dangerous, as he witnessed in 1933 at Berlin University where Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld’s research books on homosexu- als were literally burned by Nazis disgust- ed by it. I am old enough to have watched “Amos ‘n’ Andy” on network television — a show that was later censored for its virtual blackface racism. Both blackface and drag queen camp performances are part of the rich history of the theater arts that should not be censored, but preserved in a proper context as lessons for future generations. Irving Berlin’s 1946 Annie Get Your Gun December 2 nd to 18 th The Shedd Institute Tickets: 541.434.7000 www.theshedd.org eugeneweekly.com • November 17, 2016 5
