Ah, "West Side Story", the most iconic musical in American pop culture to date, even if it's just Romeo and Juliet transported to the late 1950s in the ghettos of New York City. From the oh-so-lit choreography, to the ratchet rumbles, to Maria's vocal slayage, it's the first of its kind of Broadway musicals for those reasons and more. And from its 1957 début onward, the musical has been consistently praised for its subtext of racial prejudice and gang life among urban youths.

For their spring musical, the Gulls within the Performing Arts Department selected this show to perform, and it's definitely one of the bravest things to do. I say so, because ever since Trump and the alt-right have been put into power, racism has become a hot button issue for America for every given reason, and this musical is one way to discuss it without having to beat around the bush.

The musical is set to have its opening night in just two days, and no lie, it's gonna be a great way to forget the stress of Housing Selection, then transition into Spring Week.

But, there's just one little tiny problem...

Many liberal arts colleges, including Endicott, while beautiful and rich in education, have a relative lack of ethnic diversity, and this creates a problem in performing this musical. Specifically speaking, the Puerto Rican Sharks are portrayed by about three-quarters of white people, and their backgrounds are clearly privileged in comparison to everything horrible the Puerto Ricans had to bear and go through in the early 20th century.

Now, while everyone in the show tried to address this in a diversity forum three weeks ago, it was a good move, but WAY TOO drastic to do. While hindsight's 20/20, bringing up all the racial issues that popped up during the musical's production would have been better to do at the end of the fall semester, because it wouldn't have come across as an afterthought.

Personally, I don't care too much about ethnic diversity being such a focal point of controversy in this musical, because I've always cared more about actors' ability over their appearance. But to be honest, I never expected others to get so emotional about the negative racial implications of portraying their character in the show, although everything in it is a learning experience in and of itself.

Come to think of it, this musical is necessary for our generation to put on, because all of us are so busy acting selfish and wild, that we truly don't realize we could have it all be gone in just a split second.

At the end of the day, "West Side Story" is a mirror of humans' everyday struggle to find and cultivate compassion for each other, regardless of hate and racial barriers.