Racial representation in Seattle's performing arts community

Race

Racialization and Racial Representation in Seattle and the Seattle Area Performing Arts Community

The election of the nation's first African-American president two years ago heralded, to some, a new era of American society and politics in which race ceased to play a significant role -- a supposedly "post-racial" period in American development. Those who were less Pollyannish about President Obama's election still saw the outcome of the vote as a definite move in the right direction, but acknowledged that racial issues are still quite significant in many aspects of American society. Despite having a President that is African-American, for instance, the demographic make-up of the United States citizenry is certainly not accurately reflected by members of Congress and others who hold office in the federal government; white people -- white men, specifically -- are hugely over-represented in the halls of government when compared to the diversity of the nation's people.

This same basic disparity also exists in many state and local governments, and in fact when one opens their eyes to racial issues it can be seen that almost no community in the United States is without such issues. Racial diversity itself all but demands that certain issues of stereotyping, under-representation, and racialization will exist, and with a national history like that of the United States, the issues only become more prevalent and complex. They are now so deeply woven into the fabric of American society that even the awareness and addressing of racial issues has been put in a racial context by scholars, with disputes about how to study race abounding.

In this paper, I will attempt to shed some light on the issue of racialization and representation not on a national level, but through my own experience living in the city of Seattle and as a some-time member of the greater Seattle area performing arts community. In many ways, the city of Seattle -- both its official establishments and its everyday citizens -- has done a great deal to create a fair and equal balance in the way that race is represented and viewed in the community. The city remains highly segregated, however, both in the geographical layout of its population and in the sense of different racial communities working together (and the fact that there are distinct racial communities in the city is, according to some, a part of the problem) (RSJI 2010). The performing arts community is representative of the city in this regard, with highly separate endeavors taking place amongst people of different races, and with the largely dominant culture being that of standard "white" America (Mouscou 2010).

My Personal Experience with Race Issues

As someone who is white, I can safely (though not with a great amount of pride) say that I am a member of the dominant culture in the Seattle area, especially in the performing arts community. Almost everyone I see looks like me insofar as skin color, clothing, and other racially/culturally identifying features go. The performing arts community and the city at large does contain an abundance of people that are of different skin colors and/or that wear significantly different garments denoting different ethnicities and/or religions, but I rarely see or encounter such individuals in my day-to-day life within the community.

Seattle city leaders pay excellent lip service, and most likely very real and well-meaning intentions, towards creating a more integrated and racially inclusive society in the city, and in fact have implemented some very innovative and unique program to achieve this purpose (RSJI 2010). Yet there are still fears -- or at least accusations of fears -- that leaders of one race cannot suitably represent certain areas of Seattle that re predominantly of another race (Cornwall 2004). Though everyone is treated equally, there is a definite sense of "differentness" observable in interactions between leaders and the ways in which they treat others that are different from them. Leaders in minority communities even consciously emphasize this sense at times, as a way of staking a claim for a particular racial perspective (Moscou 2010).

Because the racial communities are so segregated in Seattle at large and in the performing arts community specifically, there is not a great deal of opportunity to observe the treatment by the community of those that are racially different. I recently took part in a show where I was the only white person involved, and the leader of the project spoke to me specifically about the reasons for this extreme minorityship and her attempt to build a more racially aware production (Moscou 2010). Though her intentions were to foster greater racial awareness and diversity, the basic result is that communities treat people of a different race differently, and because the mingling is so rare in Seattle this necessarily happens at least on a semi-conscious level -- people are certainly aware of when they are dealing with individuals of another race, and this carries over to their actions in increased self-consciousness if nothing else.

One of the major issues in the performing arts community at large is the abundance of material written for and by the white community, especially white men. While one cannot exactly fault individual authors and artists for their representations (it makes sense for white male artists to create art most pertinent to white males, as that is their primary and only personal experience), there is a problem with a society that tends to only appreciate art created from such a narrow perspective. The texts, in all possible meanings of the word, that are used in Seattle's performing arts community and in the city at large are geared generally towards specific racial perspectives and interpretations, and even when this is not explicitly the case with the texts themselves this is often how they are applied (RSJI 2010; Moscou 2010). This means that I am well-represented in my community's various texts, racially speaking, but many other individuals are far less so for no real reason.

Conclusion

It is foolhardy to think that issues of race and racialization in the United States could be solved by a single election, or even by another decade or possibly even another lifetime of effort, by focusing efforts on the community, however, individuals can begin making a difference in these issues tomorrow. In Seattle, a simple awareness of the diversity that the city and the area offers would be an excellent start to building a more integrated future.