Recently I have come under fire for portraying black women in my Women Warrior (aka Women Gone Rogue) one-woman performances. At one of the San Diego County libraries, I was invited to perform three specifically named characters out of my repertoire: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman, and Mary McLeod Bethune. Just two weeks before the engagement, management at the library’s central offices decided that I should not portray Tubman and Bethune because I was white, and directed me to make substitutions. I tried to put them at ease with what I thought were persuasive arguments, but the decision was final. In a request for them to reconsider, I asked how this situation was different from black actors performing as our nation’s founders in the play Hamilton. Hamilton was “historically different,” I was told. Further, when I asked for an explanation, this is what I got: “I can’t explain it. And I’m a little baffled that you don’t understand.” Because I would not acquiesce to the request, the invitation was rescinded.
I was quite taken aback, mystified actually. In the five years of performing these characters, there has never been a hint of offense, even from anonymous surveys. And why should there be? How could we ever explore our common humanity with these kind of restrictions? Children are not born racist, they are carefully taught. Does the library really want to foster this? Apparently so because I was told I could only portray white women warriors. I remain resolute in my belief that stories should be shared without limitations, without regard for color of the artist.
This is a good segue into conversation about how I chose the characters I write about and portray. Although the seventeen historical figures in my book, Eternity Through the Rearview Mirror, span several hundred years and are an eclectic mix, they share many common denominators. Presented in first person from a heavenly vantage point, and using as many of their own words as possible, they publicly and enthusiastically credited God for their accomplishments.
From Galileo to Johnny Cash, these once ordinary people became extraordinary through their resilience in facing life’s challenges, moving through them, and coming out better on the other side. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Expect to encounter such challenges and controversies in the characters I portray, always with an overarching theme of prioritizing the good will of God and others.
I did not choose them for their station in life, their gender, their ethnicity. As Dr. King also said, I chose them for the content of their character.
And they must have history that can be verified. In my research I soon found many alternatives to truth on the internet and instead used source documents and interviewed experts who provided feedback on my stories. And I wanted you, the reader and the listener, to be confident that what you see and hear is the truth. For example, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s motivation to write about the evil and immorality of slavery in Uncle Tom’s Cabin came from a vision and not, as often mythologized, through the witnessing of a slave auction. Corrie Ten Boom’s unbelievable, electrifying encounter with a former Ravensbrück guard really happened in just the way I tell it. Although you’ll find Sojourner Truth often quoted as saying “Ain’t I a Woman,” (and displayed on museum store T-shirts, refrigerator magnets, mugs, bags and hats) she never said that. You’ll read/see what she really said, and so on. Small details, yes, but they speak to the depth of my efforts to find the truth. Truth which many times is stranger than what any creative mind could fathom, I also wanted you to be able to look up these resources for yourself, so I catalogued them in the book in more than 600 endnotes.
To the matter at hand, and in trying to understand this issue better, I discovered conversations on the internet that criticized the movie making industry for its lack of diversity; especially for Hollywood’s history of casting white actors in non-white roles. Arguments abounded pro and con, i.e., whitewashing, taking jobs from talented black actors, best person for the job, etc., but should anyone apply any of those elements here would be an apples to oranges comparison. Here there are no casting decisions, no diversity issues. It is just me telling stories, honoring women of valor, courage, and faith.
Perhaps it is time for a wider conversation about the importance of inclusivity and the power of storytelling as a means to bridge gaps and foster understanding. Rudyard Kipling said: “If all history were told in stories, it would never be forgotten.” Perhaps it’s the stories that can teach us something. Perhaps it’s the stories that can teach us truth.
Winston Churchill said: “The farther back you look, the further ahead you can see.” On a more personal level, if you, like the people I write about, have mountains to climb, seemingly insurmountable obstacles to overcome, or a future faced with uncertainty, then I invite you to read or listen to the first person accounts in Eternity Through the Rearview Mirror. They ultimately are sagas of people helping, loving, forgiving, encouraging one another. Perhaps these people can teach us how to live a life unimagined.
9 Comments on “Shades of Stories”
When I read this blog, I decided to check the testimonials to see if anyone had left veiled comments about racism on the absolute “horror” of a white woman portraying a black woman. I found none. Instead I found this comment: “I have always wanted to really celebrate Black History Month at our meeting, and you did a beautiful job honoring two women who fought against horrific racism and inequality” – quote by Jenn Halter, Regent of a chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. I find this to be truly, absolutely and rather tragically ironic. It seems to me that we’ve backslid in the past few years from our progress on the racial divide in the US, and this cancellation of your performance because of the color of your skin is emblematic of that. Someday, with the grace of God, we will move past these skin deep prejudices, and we will focus on what really matters – character. Please, may that day come quickly!
You go girl — wonderful portrayals! So sad to see that our county libraries have taken that stand. It’s a loss to the public.
“How could we ever explore our common humanity with these kind of restrictions?” This goes to the heart of the problem here. From the very beginning of storytelling, when community members gathered ’round the fire to allow their imaginations to inform their communications about their own lives, and to remember the lives of those who came before, the shared commonality of experience is the foundation of all meaning. Surface differences like skin color are entirely irrelevant when it comes to sharing with one another the trials, tribulations, triumphs and truths of our lives and of those of others.
That’s what the “news” is about; that’s what every song is about, what every play ever written is about. What every word you wrote in this post is about, what every comment responding to your post is about.
The library is the very last place where a performance like yours—reviving and honoring the words of women who faced seemingly insurmountable challenges with courage and faith, inspiring everyone who hears them—should be silenced.
Thank you for bringing forth these stories, for remembering these lives, and for encouraging all of us to face life’s challenges with the indomitable spirits of these women who came before us.
Your performances of these women transports us into their lives and struggles, and while you disappear, they come to life. These tales told in the first person make them so much more poignant, powerful, and mesmerizing! It would lose that if you were to just talk about them. I have cried over these stories as you portray them, and been awestruck by their accomplishments. These women are true role models that we should all know about and strive to be even just a little bit more like them. The color of anyone’s skin shouldn’t matter – not theirs and not yours – especially when you are lifting them up and praising them. You bring history to life in a captivating way and it is truly their loss for not having you bring forth their trials and tribulations, and how they overcame them and grew from them.
It’s a sad day when you can’t portray a woman that you admire because of one’s skin color. When are we all going to stop re-injuring ourselves with a new form of racism? Annette’s portrayal of Harriet Tubman comes from a lplace of respect for this woman.
This sure feels like veiled racism at its finest! If we are all created equally, then why does skin color even enter into the conversation? I truly can say that when I saw Hamilton, it never even entered into my consciousness that Daveed Diggs, who was acting as Thomas Jefferson AND a Frenchman, Lafayette, were white men being portrayed by a Black man!
The response from the Library Administration that she could not explain why a White woman portraying Black women was different from the Hamilton scenario has DEFENSE written all over it! She doesn’t personally know why she thinks it’s inappropriate for you to portray Bethune and Tubman, so she lashes out with nonsense as a defense mechanism…scares me that this is a woman running a public library district!
Well said, Annette. In our divided culture and the noise that constantly bombards us, it is easy to listen to the loudest voices that seek their own benefit and bend to the will of those who are most critical and angry in an effort to appease and “be tolerant”. We are being subject to the adage: “If you say it loud enough and often enough, it becomes reality.” Truth, integrity, and character do not seem to have a seat at the table.
Every culture has need of improvement, because as human beings we are broken and naturally self-seeking. To be otherwise – focused on the good of others outside ourselves, regardless of race, color, gender, nation, tongue – is rare and desperately needed today as it has been since the dawn of time…and certainly as it was in the times in which these women took action.
Therein is the tragedy of the library’s decision to not have you perform (tell the story of) these women who were indeed examples of devotion to the well-being of others at great cost to themselves. Their color and race were secondary to the great good they accomplished for so many people.
How can we not honor that? Since when is a story labeled by color?
Jesus said, “The greatest among you will be your servant.” By that standard ALL THREE of these women were great, because they lived lives in service to others. No where in Jesus’ statement is there a declaration of color – why do we insert it? Why do we let that overwhelm the good that may result from setting them up as examples?
It’s a question I cannot answer, and it seems the library is unwilling or unable to do so.
I’m astonished that the San Diego County Library District could be so shortsighted. This is history in its finest form. We as a people remember stories. The teachers that were the most influential were those that taught in story form. It always made a lasting impression. The white population is so afraid to offend they are missing the point of teaching inclusion. I would have never known of these amazing women if Annette didn’t bring them to life.
Keep up your courageous efforts to teach all. For red, yellow, black or white, we are all precious in His sight.
I love that you chose/choose and wrote/write about people because of the content of their character.
And am thankful for your overarching theme of prioritizing the good will of God and others.