touchmeinthemorning--- I agree with you on balance. But I doubt many of these authors are writing "slavery" material just so white audiences can say "thank God we don't have that anymore" as some sort of penance or cleansing of the soul.
There are a few more obvious reasons that come to mind:
1) The slavery struggle "plays well." Let's face it. Human conflict = big emotional impact in books, plays, movies, etc. That's another reason why writers and audience members gravitate toward slavery, war, the holocaust, etc. It makes for huge payoffs in storytelling. It's much harder to write an interesting provocative piece on an average day with "normal life" in 2005. I'm not implying that artists take the easy way out, but this is why "Our Town" appeals to me so much. It takes a normal day in a small Turn-of-the-Century town and makes it high art. Not that easy to do, though. Positive role models based on "normal" characters (white, black or any color) just don't play well on stage. We like to see human struggle, not "Joe" at the park on a sunny day. Joe's not that interesting to watch or learn from.
2) There is truth to the old cliché that if you forget history, you are doomed to repeat it. There is a strong desire by artists of all races to keep these human struggles in the public eye, so we don't forget.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
