This past Sunday marked the 70th annual Tony Awards, the show that celebrates and awards outstanding performers on stage in musicals and plays, as well as technical achievements with light and set design. This recent broadcast will go down in history as all four of the winners in the Best Performance by An Actor/Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical (Featured Actor/Actress as well) went to black actors this year! This is amazing for multiple reasons, including but not limited to the fact four actors of color haven’t won on the same night since 1970.
While this is an amazing thing that has happened in our lifetime, some people and publications, whether they know it or not, are shortchanging the magnitude of this fact. The Monday after, Tony’s articles were pouring in, talking about how four “actors of color” won in the categories without mentioning that they are black. Now, one might be thinking “they still won, it’s not a big deal if they didn’t get the ethnicity right” or “oh, news outlets make mistakes all the time, it’s not hurting anyone.” On the one hand, that is a valid response; the actors still have their awards, and they’re still black, so no harm was done, right? While this may be true, I think it is important to be critical of such shortcomings in recognition.
So many times, more times than I can count, the success of black people has been compromised. Whenever black people want to celebrate our beauty or our contributions to humankind, there is a barrage of nay-sayers who say things like “um, you should be celebrating all beauty, not just black beauty. Ugh, racists.” Or “why isn’t there a white history month? Ugh, racists.” Or, my favorite, “MLK said we need to love everyone; you’re going against his legacy. Ugh, racists.” It is very ironic that the people who say things like this will then go on to appropriate black culture every possible way, every day of the week.
I am aware that the news publications are not at this extreme level of obliviousness, but it is important to point out that this trend still continues, with the lack of acknowledgment of the actors themselves. By only saying “actors of color,” it takes away part of the connection that lies between the four actors and other black artists and musicians in the world. As a black artist myself, I long to see that type of representation, and I also long to see people acknowledge everything about it, not just a vague misnomer for a group of individuals. I am fired up by this because, aside from the fact that a significant thing happened for the black community, and we are not fully celebrating it. This is another form of oppression in my opinion, however, mild in the grand scheme of things. By erasing the ethnicity, people are telling black kids, “yeah, we’ll acknowledge your achievement, but we’re gonna leave out an important aspect of yourself so people might care more.” #BlackLivesMatter
