Color-blind and gender-blind casting — Page 5

Owen22 said: "No prob! It seems to me, that you, Joe and myself all believe in color-blind casting except in the case where racial concerns are part of the play or musical, which would confuse and/or harm the play or musical's political raison d'etre. I think there are some ancillary things we disagree on, or maybe disagree on reasons why it's a good thing, or how it confuses the audience, but basically I get that we're all on the right side."

I believe in color blind (and gender blind) casting period. I also believe in color conscious casting (e.g., Hamilton). I don't believe in exceptions to color blind casting. I don't doubt that we are all on "the right side" in the sense that we don't have racist hearts. But I have made it a point to avoid talking about that, which is personal, and have instead spoken of racial baggage, which is about ideas. The notion of systemic racism is that it is not (necessarily) rooted in evil hearts, but in learned bad habits.