OPINION
Page 6 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
January 21, 2019
Volume 29 Number 2
January 21, 2019
ISSN: 1094-9453
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MY TURN
n Dmae Roberts
Here On This Bridge:
The –Ism Project
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aving grown up in Oregon since the age of
10, it’s not shocking to befriend someone
and later hear them say something racist,
sexist, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, or anti-Semitic.
When I hear it, I feel a twinge of surprise mixed with
a sense of sadness and disappointment in them. In
Oregon, I’ve engaged in more cultural education
conversations than I’d like. When interacting with
people in person or on social media, frequently it
occurs daily.
More recently, I saw a Facebook post by my
hairdresser of nearly 20 years who expressed
far-right views about the media being biased and
untrustworthy and finding comfort in one-sided
documentaries that debased the former president
and promoted the current one. The post and
comments by her friends left a queasy feeling in my
stomach.
Seeing her post was somewhat unexpected
because my hairdresser is a 40-something white
vegan woman with so many tattoos on her arms and
legs you can barely see any skin. At first glance, one
might think she’s a hard rocker.
My first thought about her post was that I needed
to find a new hairdresser. Then I reconsidered. Why
would someone like her turn to such divisive views?
This is the same woman I’ve talked to about health,
diet, relationships, and pop culture for decades.
During this time, has she been moving to the far
right?
Instead, I decided that at my next appointment in
about a month I would at least give her the benefit of
the doubt and hear her out.
After the 2016 election, I, like many Americans,
have seen and felt the greatest divide of our country
that I’ve ever experienced. People seem to have
stopped participating in civil conversations and
instead resort to shouting, name-calling, and
outright acts of hate and violence. As a result of this
animosity, I’ve been thinking about a project that
would use artistic expression to get people to meet
and actually talk to each other.
I had two inspirations.
The first was my travels around Oregon as part of
the “Conversation Project,” a series presented by
Oregon Humanities. My topics, mixed-race and
interracial identity, were a catalyst for
communities of color in Oregon to come together
and converse with white community members
about the difficult topic of race.
During the project I found people in small towns
struggling with a rise in bullying and blatant acts of
hate, including name-calling and displays of the
confederate flag. But I also discovered white allies
H
in these communities, who, after being shocked to
hear about the experiences of their neighbors,
resolved to be more supportive and protective.
The second inspiration was the August Wilson
Red Door Project’s presentation of New Black Fest’s
Hands Up: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments, a
milestone theatre piece produced locally by artistic
director Kevin Jones. The collection of monologues
from
national
playwrights
detailed
and
demonstrated the racial profiling of African
Americans by law enforcement. It was performed
throughout the Pacific Northwest before 12,000
people. After witnessing the testaments of Black
men and women, the dialogue that followed simply
changed minds and lives. Their newest project is
their original play Cop Out: Beyond Black, White &
Blue, which presents the perspectives of law
enforcement. I urge folks to watch it.
I thought to myself, what can I do with these two
inspirations to create a work that could travel
around Oregon to build bridges between divided
communities? That’s when Here On This Bridge:
The –Ism Project was born.
Through my nonprofit, MediaRites, and its Thea-
tre Diaspora program, the goals of the production
were conceived: 1. To produce an original theatrical
work that would eventually travel throughout Ore-
gon; 2. To address the divide as well as the backlash
against people of color, women, immigrants,
refugees, and LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, questioning, and intersex) people,
which have become more visible and frequent since
the 2016 presidential election; 3. To address the
intersections of race with sexism, homophobia, and
xenophobia; 4. To create community dialogues we
value as well as the professional work we hope to
create; 5. To provide continued opportunities for
theatre artists of color with workshops and
trainings as well as to perform in the new work.
The first step was a national call to playwrights
for monologues. Through the process, six pieces
were selected — five from Oregon writers and one
created by a nationally recognized Iraqi-American
writer, Heather Raffo. The six stories are very
different: A Black tradeswoman negotiates the
complicated terrain of diversity training; an Iraqi
refugee woman reacts to news of shootings and child
safety; a gay young man honors his Lao refugee
mother’s strength and details the painful moments
of coming out to her; a Latina recalls the harrowing
story of her mother escaping hardship and violence
coming to America by crossing the Rio Grande; a
Black middle-class woman experiences racial
Continued on page 7
Opinions expressed in this newspaper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of this publication.