Arrogance or ignorance

By: Derrick Ferry

The curtain opens on a figure in the Westlock Alberta community. The figure is
unwilling to be named for fear of a backlash, but won’t stay silent.
“Why isn’t anyone complaining? I just don’t understand how in 2017 this can still be a
thing,” the unnamed source said.
The concern regards the current production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. A
dinner theatre in Westlock that ran throughout October and raises money yearly, since 1992, for
the Rotary Club. A club whose members pride themselves in contributing to national and
international causes.
“Even the Mayor of Westlock is in the play,” said the source.
The director, Bunnie Arth, had a difficult character role to fill. That of Jewel, an African
American housekeeper. A position the Westlock Rotary Club dinner theatre decided to cast as a
visibly Caucasian woman in black make-up, or more commonly known as blackface.
“We don’t have a multitude of black people in our small town,” said Arth. Later adding
that, “Black people would have to come in from the city.”
Blackface rose in popularity during the 19th Century with Minstrels. Eventually
becoming a genre of theatre. The style perpetuates stereotypes which dehumanize black people,
such as the newly freed slave, the bull-like railway worker, or the watermelon and fried chicken
obsessed criminal. It was used to portray black people as caricatures in Canada even into the
early 2000s.
In 2011 the HEC Montréal, a business school of Université de Montréal, was in the
national and international news because their students painted themselves in blackface, threw on
Jamaican Olympic themed costumes, and invited students to come smoke weed. This was part of
an Olympic themed frosh stunt and the university later apologized.
Director Jim Thorp of Footlite Musicals Inc. ran into a problem, like the Rotary Club
dinner theatre, when casting the role of Jewel for an upcoming show in Indianapolis.
“Not a single African American tried out,” Thorp said. He added that the role of the
sassy black housekeeper was so stereotypical that no one wanted it.
Thorp looked at what he really needed in the role. A character that could handle the
songs. He decided to cast Eryn Bowser, a Caucasian female, in the role and alter it away from
the housekeeper stereotype. They don’t yet know how the audience will receive it, but he said
he’s hopeful.
“I can’t think of any reason that any role of the show can’t be of any race,” said Thorp.
Gina Martel, founder and director, of Big River Arts Society in Athabasca Alberta says
it’s more about what the community is willing to accept.
 “You have to stick to the script as much as possible, but if it’s not going to work in that
community, you can change things slightly. [Directors] have to have their finger on the pulse of
the community to make that call,” Martel said.
Is this the pulse of the Westlock community?
“Attendance has been excellent,” said Director Arth, adding that when she determines
which show to run each year, she reads scripts to find which one is suitable for a Westlock
audience.
When asked about her casting choice for the role of Jewel, Arth said, “It specifically calls
for a black person and the dialogue and everything is that way. I couldn’t see a white lady
coming out and making her the part of Jewel.”
“If I’m going to cast someone to play a murderer or a horrible person I can’t make him
look like a Sunday school teacher,” Arth said.
Regardless of Arth’s, hopefully, accidental comparison of a black person to a murderer,
the larger problem is how did the play run, without opposition, for three weeks.
Junetta Jamerson, in an official statement from Black Women United YEG, had this to
say, “we are deeply unimpressed with the Westlock Rotary Club’s decision to portray the
character “Jewel”, of the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, in blackface. The character “Jewel” is
problematic. The script is written by 3 white American men born generations ago. “Jewel” is a
favorite stereotype created for white America, by white America. The loyal, smart-mouthed,
African-American maid stereotype called “Mammy”, was challenged in popularity only by
“Sapphire”, the over-sexed, wanton Negro temptress who was always available for sex.”
“Both tropes are dehumanizing reductions that were established by white supremacists
during slavery, and locked Black women into unwanted roles which were systemically enforced
for decades after Emancipation,” she said.

“These characterizations limited talented Black actresses to maids and prostitutes and
were a
direct projection of the racist perception of what Black women were good for.

“We condemn all depictions of Black Women that are of racist origins.

“The decision to depict “Jewel” in blackface adds another layer of offence. Now we have
a character originating from the bowels of white supremacy, being portrayed by a white woman
based on how she imagines an already stereotypical character thinks, looks, and acts.

“That’s called mockery.

“Westlock Rotary, you have no right to denigrate the image of Black Women for laughter
and applause. We strongly denounce this portrayal as disrespectful and racist,” Jamerson said.
 Jamerson even had a suggested solution, “Since you are depicting prostitution to be a
rollicking good time, your actress should also exert artistic license and depict the character
“Jewel” as white, and behaving however a white maid in a whorehouse in Gilbert, Texas, would
behave.

“Leave Black Women out of it,” she said.

Blackface breeds an altered perception of how black people interact and behave in
society. In any community it would be racist to use blackface, but to do so in a community that’s
starved of cultural diversity could have an even greater dehumanizing affect on those that live in
it — they have no, or very few, experiences to balance the stereotypes against.
Not to mention what it says about the community’s leadership taking part in the display,
or the insensitivity of an organization that allows such in the pursuit of charitable dollars.