The NAACP pressuring a school to censor ragtime

This is in extremely poor taste on the NAACP's part. Please share and spread this petition. It actually makes me sick. https://www.change.org/p/cherry-hill-board-of-education-prevent-the-censorship-of-ragtime-and-other-artistic-works-at-cherry-hill-east/w?source_location=petition_show

For the sake of accuracy, we are discussing one chapter of the NAACP (Camden County East Branch of the NAACP) advocating for this, not the organization as a whole. The NAACP is a large organization made up of individual chapters. One chapter, or one official, does not speak for the entire organization.

The chapter's president is quoted in the linked article. I find his comments baffling. He seems to completely miss the point of the musical, and why it is an important work of theater both in general and specifically at this time.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20170121_Cherry_Hill_school_district_pulls_the__N-word__from_Ragtime_production.html

Updated On: 1/24/17 at 02:31 PM

AC126748 said: "For the sake of accuracy, we are discussing one chapter of the NAACP (Camden County East Branch of the NAACP) advocating for this, not the organization as a whole. The NAACP is a large organization made up of individual chapters. One chapter, or one official, does not speak for the entire organization.

The chapter's president is quoted in the linked article. I find his comments baffling. He seems to completely miss the point of the musical, and why it is an important work of theater both in general and specifically at this time.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20170121_Cherry_Hill_school_district_pulls_the__N-word__from_Ragtime_production.html



You are, as always, correct. I will edit my post in the interest of accuracy. I didn't mean to imply this chapter was speaking for the organization as a whole. I stand by the fact that the comments made by this NAACP chapter regarding sanitizing this show are baffling.

Here is the entire text of the statement made by those advocating the change, found on Facebook:

NAACP Members and Friends.
Please note: Camden County East NAACP will be attending the next Cherry Hill School District Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, January 24, 2017 to publicly address the ill advised decision to permit the high school students to put on the musical production, Ragtime,, with the use of the N-Word. Parents from the community have voiced their objections to this public sanctioned racially derogatory use of the N-Word disguised as 'literary freedom'. You are encouraged to come out and show your
support!

If you are a resident of Cherry Hill we especially hope to see you there. Your voice will carry even more weight if as a resident you make a short comment in opposition to continue with this musical/play. However, you do not have to address the board members, just having you there will give us
support in making our position.

If you have any questions, please contact us at 856-547-7572 or via email.
Again, Tues. Jan. 24, 2017 @ 7pm Sharp!
Cherry Hill School District
Malberg Administration Building
45 Ranoldo Terrace
Cherry Hill, NJ 08034
Hope to see you there and bring somebody with you!
--
Lloyd D. Henderson, Esq.
President
Camden County East NAACP
PO Box 53
Lawnside, NJ 08045
856-547-7572

As a lawyer, you'd think Mr. Henderson would realize that what he is advocating violates copyright law and the contract under which the musical was licensed.

As a resident of Camden County, I plan to attend the meeting this evening and make a statement in opposition of the proposed changes.

The Philly.com piece is terribly written. Nearly the whole thing is devoted to justifying the decision, with one short quote (taken from a Facebook post, not an actual interview) serving to represent the other side. I doubt the reporter, when interviewing Henderson, tried to push back on any of his statements or get him to actually justify why he supports the change.

I really hope that the rights are pulled. Censorship is wrong, no matter who does it and must be stopped.

If you read down in the article, the censorship appears to be going far beyond just striking the N-word.

Quote: "The [school] district also plans to remove disparaging lines from the play targeting other ethnic groups, [school chief] Meloche said."

^^ People this stupid shouldn't be running a school district. ^^

Why even bother putting on the play?

Gaveston: Wait, Ragtime has a rape scene? When is it? I honestly don't remember. I know that Sarah gets shot when she tries to talk to the vice president.

SporkGoddess said: "Gaveston: Wait, Ragtime has a rape scene? When is it? I honestly don't remember. I know that Sarah gets shot when she tries to talk to the vice president.



"

I saw the LA production several times but not the NYC. I've only just recently been made aware how many changes were made. In LA, Sarah and Colehouse were stopped by a gang of racist firefighters and the way they passed Sarah violently between them seemed to imply rape as well as murder. I don't know anything about Sarah getting shot.

(ETA I went back and looked at the Broadway OCR; songs called "Justice" and "President" are added over what we saw in LA. In LA, I believe (we are talking 20 years ago) it was the firemen who killed Sara, perhaps while Colehouse went for the police. Hence, the lyric, "So they beat her and beat her and beat her" at the funeral, with no reference to a gunshot.)

But thanks for making me aware of just how different the LA and NYC productions were.

Updated On: 1/24/17 at 05:55 PM

They'll be left with two tight paragraphs on kittens that grandma would be so proud of.

Talk about missing the entire point of the show and its message.

Should we censor "Jitney" for normalizing the word? Wtf. Stupid.

Thank you, AEA, for that explanation. I wouldn't advise anybody to trust my memory of a musical i saw 20 years ago, even if I did go back a couple of times. I had read the book and seen the film several times as well, and I've been listening to the "concept album" ever since. So it's perfectly possible I've confused things from different versions and even invented scenes in my mind.

Maybe some other Los Angeleno can clear it up for me. The attempt to speak to the Vice President and Colehouse's struggle with the legal bureaucracy do sound familiar to me, but I think I'm remembering the book and film. The way I remember the LA stage version we got from smashing the car to the funeral much more quickly.

I saw the LA production at the end of it's run and "Justice" and "President" were definitely in the show. There was no rape scene and Sarah was kiilled by the police. It's certainly possible that changes were made early on, but my understanding is that the show was frozen in LA and went to Broadway basically unchanged.

...God, I miss the Schubert Theater.