According to the New York Daily News, Kent State University is currently producing a play about Martin Luther King Jr. This play will definitely showcase Martin Luther King in a different light, so proceed with caution as you read this article.
Kent State University has decided to cast a white actor, yes you heard correct, to play the iconic civil rights leader. The writer behind the acclaimed “The Mountaintop” play about Martin Luther King Jr. was among the many who were outraged after hearing the news.
Katori Hall voiced her frustration to Kent State University and the director of the school’s amateur presentation for their “tone deaf” decision to have a white man play the role of the historic figure.
“The casting of a white King is committing yet another erasure of the black body,” Hall wrote Monday in a searing piece in The Root. “Sure, it might be in the world of pretend, but it is disrespectful nonetheless.”
The enraged 34-year-old play writer said she was shocked when she first heard about the controversial casting in early October from a colleague.
“The actor playing King stood there, hands outstretched, his skin far from chocolate but a creamy buff. At first glance I was like, ‘Unh-uh, maybe he light-skinned. Don’t punish the brother for being able to pass,’” she said.
This isn’t a typical case of bad casting. It’s not as if he were just a little too light-skinned for the role…the man is white. There is no excuse as to why in 2015 MLK Jr. is being casted as white man when we have a great range of African American actors to choose from. We don’t see African American’s being casted to play John F. Kennedy or Abraham Lincoln!
In response to the controversy, the plays director, Michael Oatman, said he casted both a white MLK and a black MLK and each man would split the stage as the iconic civil rights activist.
“I truly wanted to explore the issue of racial ownership and authenticity. I didn’t want this to be a stunt, but a true exploration of King’s wish that we all be judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin,” he said at the time.
Oatman said in an August press release that he purposefully selected the white and black actors to “stir discussion” about race.
“I wanted the contrast,” Oatman added. “I wanted to see how the words rang differently or indeed the same, coming from two different actors, with two different racial backgrounds.”
Roommates would you attend a play where MLK Jr. was white?
TSR Intern: Kyle Simpson
@Kyle.Simpson94http://bossip.com/1251896/you-cant-be-serious-ohio-college-casts-a-white-man-to-be-martin-luther-king-jr-in-play-43081/
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/playwright-fumes-white-man-cast-martin-luther-king-article-1.2431176
