Hi!! You mentioned something about racism in Epic the Musical? Would I be okay to ask about that?
You have NO idea how long I've been sitting on this infographic made by my buddy @antivan-surana
1) Okay, so. First what I wanna counter- because I know it's coming- is "but there's more white antagonists and there's an equal amount of Black people in the protagonists and the antagonists!" This is a common argument when discussing racism: numbers versus rates. Out of a 24 member main cast (at least the ones I got here) five of those actors are Black (six characters, two played by the same guy). 21%. Okay, not great, not terrible!
2) Now, out of those 6 characters, played by 5 Black actors. 5 of those characters- 2 of them despite their technical protagonist roles- are either antagonists (antagonist ā villain), or are treated as such by the fans. 5/6, or 83% of your Black cast is or will be considered acting in opposition to your main hero.
3) one of these Black characters dies early on, and I even got complaints that they whitewash his character to bits. So, yay! One genuinely protagonist Black character... Dead. It's not even like most of these human characters don't die either, but... Ya know. Woulda been cool to pick a protagonist Black character that lived!
4) My thoughts on Calypso and Antinous and the historically bad stereotypes they now represent by casting two Black people in those roles, as well as how their Blackness will affect perception of those roles by a nonblack audience that may have treated them differently if they weren't. This one is a major factor for me, if NOTHING else. Like even if all other things were different, I would still be uncomfortable if the cast list remained the same.
5) @does-it-like-black-women ran a poll on Epic's treatment of Black women (the sole Black woman on the cast), and even though all the takes came from different directions, there was still a very much overwhelming answer of "No". So it's not like people don't notice!
Someone put in my tags once that the casting was a blind audition. Idek if that's true, but I'm not gone hold you, if you cast an entire play blindly and your stats come out looking like this?? I'd be wondering if there's some other biases we might have to look at with you. But that's not a numbers based bullet point, just a thought of mine.
6) "the creator can't be racist, he's Puerto Rican!" Puerto Rican doesn't mean not white. Latino doesn't mean "not white". The same peer who made this infographic explained that there's still a lot of antiblackness in Puerto Rico. You can literally be friends with Black people and still manage to be racist to them, there's no Protective Identity that stops one from committing harm! I also remember being told that he had taken advantage of some of his Black artist peers, though I didn't keep up with that.
In summary, the musical itself is not the problem. It's just another modern take on The Odyssey. You could listen to this whole thing and be fine. The issue is the culture around the musical. That's my problem. That's where the antiblackness lies. If you have a cast where the majority of your Black characters are bad guys, and you've got an audience that is steeped with antiblack bias (and BELIEVE ME... Yes. It does. Every fandom does.) you're gonna end up with that bias festering and revealing itself.
And to me, that's something that someone who was intentional in their casting would have thought about. Someone who took the time to think about what they were creating, who cared about the depiction of Black characters, woulda stood back and at least said "hmm. Maybe we need to make some more of the Gods or maybe even Odysseus, Penelope, or Telemachus Black".
But it's really just another example of the same old, same old, just in a popular form that I think everyone (including Black listeners) just shove under the rug. And while I don't blame anyone for listening, I do think it's part of critical media consumption to acknowledge "hey... That is a little weird, even if it's not intentional."
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