ErikJ972 said: "This is going to make Dave's head explode. It's his favorite show!"
I have already expressed how I feel about the kneeling travesty during the Anthem at the sports game. The Anthem is about the history of the country, including honoring people like Martin Luther King (to give you an idea of the bigger picture, I have explained this better elsewhere but I think you get the point). Grabbing this as an opportunity is characterless, disrespectful and selfish. The Anthem has nothing to do with it. With that said, this situation also creates a bigger race gap than ever before, putting the focus on separation in situations that have nothing to do with it is the core of the problem. This very moment is an example. So not only is it dumb and disrespectful and has it nothing to do with the Anthem, it also works in the opposite direction. Because now we have less equality. Some people might think writing "black power" above your twitter pics is going to generate equality, or pulling the race card when it isn't there (The great comet debacle, the hercules dreamcasting twitter attack on a 16 year old girl, etc), and now, making sure the nation realizes how separated black people should be by disrespecting the Anthem and putting their victim roles above it, is going to generate equality, but really it's not. It's dividing more and more. The situation was not about race. Demanding to make it about race is what happened. It's what some people do in every daily situation and it's what keeps the problem alive. It prevents unity. The game treated all people involved as equals. Why not embrace that and build on it. There should be respect for unity when it's there. And yes, sometimes it's there. Often it's there. In fact, in my situation, it's always there until the other party deliberately separates itself.
You can make every daily situation in your daily life about race as much as you like, but this was not the situation and place to do it. If it was purely to have a wide audience, it's still very disrespectful to the creators of the country including the people who gave their lives for you, but fine, you have your audience, but then if you have that audience, do something that actually cuts wood instead of repeating the thing that is the problem in the first place. Repeating history by hammering on racial differences but this time the other way around to get even. And this is not only about the NFL incident but about the endless list of things we discussed here on this board earlier.
Don't you worry, my head will not explode and I will always see people as people, no matter how much they say they are nothing more than their color, even in the most equal situations, and Miss Saigon is indeed my favorite show and it will stay that way. Just because some actors don't understand life, history and facts (maybe with the best intentions) does not mean I am going to love the show any less. Some people in the show might be black and may be raised with the idea that that is all there is to their idendity too, and they have learned to bring it up in each and every situation even when it has nothing to do with it, so how can I blame them? If they do their job well it's fine with me and I don't care how they reason in their private life.
You should always be aware though that when you're in a Broadway show, your audiences consist of a variety of people with a variety of intelligence levels and standpoints, so disrespecting the Anthem and taking a stand against the creators and the history of your country, incuding the greatest equality fighters there ever were, may not be the best idea. But of course they are free to do it. There are no laws against it or anything. But not seeing the harm it does to the people they are trying to help is naive to say the least.
Updated On: 9/28/17 at 11:55 AM