SHOCKING! The Wiz has Black People in it!!! Where the White People At???????

[AthenaAwakened]

“I just learned there is a black version of The Wizard of Oz called “The Wiz” – how is this not racist?” wrote Twitter user @MJTM.

To give a little historical context, The Wiz! originally debuted as a stage play in 1974 in Baltimore and then in 1975 on Broadway. The play purposely has an all-Black cast, as it is an adaptation of the children’s book from 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the same book on which the all-White 1939 film, The Wizard Of Oz, is based.

The Broadway production, starring Stephanie Mills, made history and broke racial barriers, winning seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

http://newsone.com/3281350/confused-white-people-are-shocked-the-wiz-has-an-all-black-cast/

 

[Derec]

How is it "breaking racial barriers" if you purposely exclude white actors? It seems to me it's more about reinforcing those barriers, not breaking them.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Derec

click the link, watch the clip

 

[laughing dog]

How is it "breaking racial barriers" if you purposely exclude white actors? It seems to me it's more about reinforcing those barriers, not breaking them.

Right. Back in 1974, it would have really broke barriers by having white actors in black face.

 

[Derec]

How is it "breaking racial barriers" if you purposely exclude white actors? It seems to me it's more about reinforcing those barriers, not breaking them.

Right. Back in 1974, it would have really broke barriers by having white actors in black face.

Why would they need to be in blackface? Would a white character or two really have been so incredibly offensive?

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

How is it "breaking racial barriers" if you purposely exclude white actors? It seems to me it's more about reinforcing those barriers, not breaking them.

So these guys are part of the problem--reinforcing a racial barrier?

Show

http://cdn.sheknows.com/articles/2014/05/friends-anniversary-main.jpg

They need to have a Black friend?

 

[Keith&Co.]

Right. Back in 1974, it would have really broke barriers by having white actors in black face.

Why would they need to be in blackface? Would a white character or two really have been so incredibly offensive?

Exactly what do you think the 'racial barriers' were back in 1974?

How does an all-black cast reinforce them?

 

[Derec]

So these guys are part of the problem--reinforcing a racial barrier?

Well nobody praised Friends for "breaking racial barriers" and I am sure there had been criticism of the homogeneity of the main cast - although I do recall Ross dating a black woman at one point, so Friends is much more diverse than Wiz.

Also, we live in an age where there are many originally white characters cast with black actors - there are even calls to cast Idris Elba as the next James Bond (even though he is way too old), yet an updated Wiz could not have a more diverse cast? Really?

 

[Derec]

Why would they need to be in blackface? Would a white character or two really have been so incredibly offensive?

Exactly what do you think the 'racial barriers' were back in 1974?

Whatever they were, apparently you think having a purposely racially homogeneous cast is breaking them.
And this is not really about 1974 version but the 2015 update which still has the purposely racially homogeneous cast.
If a production based on the 1930s musical was made in 2015 and it purposely had an all-white cast because of the 1930s movie that would not fly. So why should this?

How does an all-black cast reinforce them?

Purposely excluding people just because of their race is pretty much the definition of racial barriers.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

So these guys are part of the problem--reinforcing a racial barrier?

Well nobody praised Friends for "breaking racial barriers" and I am sure there had been criticism of the homogeneity of the main cast - although I do recall Ross dating a black woman at one point, so Friends is much more diverse than Wiz.

Also, we live in an age where there are many orgiginally white characters cast with black actors - there are even calls to cast Idris Elba as the next James Bond (even though he is way too old), yet an updated Wiz could not have a more diverse cast? Really?

And there appears to have beeb a white guy in The Wiz

Chris Silcox



Not that haters on twitter bothered to look.

 

[Derec]

And there appears to have beeb a white guy in The Wiz

That's what I get for trusting what you write in your OP.

The play purposely has an all-Black cast

Serves me right, I guess.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

... much more diverse than Wiz...

How many episodes of Friends were there? How much time? A single Black actress got some minor time in all that and you call that "much more?" I am sure that there are other cast members of the 1000 member cast over a decade of shows who also were Black, like the Handyman. However, if you objectively quantify it in terms of people-hours shown in television episodes, I'm sure that you are exaggerating. We can do the math, if you really want to.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

That's what I get for trusting what you write in your OP.

The play purposely has an all-Black cast

Serves me right, I guess.

The News One article in the OP does say "The play purposely has an all-Black cast" and traditionally the wiz is staged with an all black cast, but evidently this particular production took a step outside the norm.

Probably in anticipation of the predictable calls of racism from low information individuals who like to believe all things are brand new and history only goes back to last Tuesday.

 

[Ford]

Derec

click the link, watch the clip

I watched it twice. So he don't have to.

Didn't notice any white folks on camera.

 

[Horatio Parker]

Ira Gershwin stipulated that only AA singers can sing the lead roles in American productions of Porgy and Bess.

Of course, that was the '30s.

 

[Bronzeage]

How is it "breaking racial barriers" if you purposely exclude white actors? It seems to me it's more about reinforcing those barriers, not breaking them.

Watch this short video. It explains everything.

One leg too few.

 

[laughing dog]

Right. Back in 1974, it would have really broke barriers by having white actors in black face.

Why would they need to be in blackface? Would a white character or two really have been so incredibly offensive?

Interesting that you use the word "offensive". The point of the Wiz was to have an all black production. That was part of the artistic vision.

 

[Jayjay]

What about witches? Are we still so bigoted that we have white or black actors playing the Wicked Witch of the West in greenface, rather than finding a real witch to play the role? Where is the outrage from the Magical-American community on this?

 

[Keith&Co.]

Exactly what do you think the 'racial barriers' were back in 1974?

Whatever they were,

If you don't know what the barriers were, you're completely unqualified to do more than guess that an all-black cast reinforced them. That's just you lashing out for butt-hurt.

Purposely excluding people just because of their race is pretty much the definition of racial barriers.

But not all barriers.

So why should this?

Maybe because of part of the goals in the production.

At least one barrier in the 70s was an assumption in Hollywood that blacks could not carry a production as the main characters. That they were inappropriate as leads. They would not be successful in drawing audiences.
If they had created a diverse The Wiz, then people defending that assumption would have claimed that it was the whites in the movie/Broadway production that had drawn the crowds. So the only way to prove that blacks could be successful as leads in roles that were not specifically created for blacks would be to make sure no one had any ammunition to whine that it still didn't prove what they wanted to prove.

And this is not really about 1974 version but the 2015 update which still has the purposely racially homogeneous cast.

If it's not really about the 1974 production, why did you assert that it was the 1974 production which reinforced the racial barriers? The barriers you cannot identify...

 

[Keith&Co.]

Purposely excluding people just because of their race is pretty much the definition of racial barriers.

Wow. You really gave my wife a laugh.

She doesn't think you're using the term 'racial barrier' correctly.

See, to her, when just about all of Hollywood sees a person's skin color and decides that they can only play maids, chauffeurs, criminals or the camp cook, that's a barrier. When you can only play a cop show if you're the junkie or the snitch, never the detective; when you can only be friends with the white college kids if you're the first character the monster eats after it escapes it's ancient prison; when the only thing you can do on a safari is refuse to go any further because of silly native superstitions (that turn out to be right, but only after you're off the screen); those are barriers.

Being of the wrong race FOR ONE SINGLE PRODUCTION may be a race-based decision on the part of the director or the producer or maybe the guy who coordinates stunt doubles, but it is exactly NOT a RACIAL BARRIER.