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Something I Said -- Tonys To Denzel Washington, Viola Davis A Head-Fake

SIS/Broadway Gives Racist Head-Fake At Tony Awards

Dwight Hobbes

Denzel Washington along with Viola Davis, walked away with best actor Tony Awards for their performances in Fences, the first time that's happened with Black man and woman in the same season.  Fine, but in actuality not much to really get excited about.  It really marks a tell-tale sign that the more things change the more they stay the same.  Especially so far as racism goes.  There are few things White folk in what are assumed to be forward-thinking fields like arts and entertainment love to do more than give the hold head-fake that they are champions of racial equality -- because giving the impression makes them look better than overt racists -- while in fact the more invisible artists and audiences of color are the better these two-faced so-called liberals like it.

Washington and Davis are world-class professionals whose talents merit Tony Award recognition, so, there's no denying credit was given where it is due.  But Broadway made what amounts to nothing more than a token gesture.  Oh, there may be another Black face or two among the high profiles next season, but the fact that these two were conspicuous as stars of color shows that America's vaunted theatrical institution  -- in this alleged day and age of inclusion -- lags behind even Hollywood in respecting non-white artistry and the audiences they reflect.  White powers that be simply threw Black folk a bone.  And blithely gave others of color their privileged, elitist behinds to kiss.  The self-congratulatory pat on the head to African Americans said, Here.  Be happy with this.  Then, go somewhere and sit down.

What, though, about communities that don't happen to have a nicely acceptable, safely ineffectual affirmative action poster boy in the White House?  Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, they don't even get the head-fake.  They're just asterisk out. I remember catching Esai Morales in Miguel Pinero's Short Eyes on the New York City stage.  He was hypnotizing.  But didn't get acknowledged.  Soon Tek Oh, brilliant and vastly accomplished has never starred on Broadway outside of being in the ensemble cast of Pacific Overtures with fellow familiar, under-employed Asian faces Mako and Sab Shimono.  Wes Studi is a top-shelf talent, but there will never be an Indian in the lead of a Broadway cast.  Hell, who knows whether there's ever been one on Broadway, period?  When the once-in-a-blue-moon presence of Black actors, authors and directors doesn't stick out like pepper specks in a bowl of salt, when all minorities (put together we're closer to being the majority) are regularly represented, then and only then will White folk have to something to break their arms backing themselves on the back for.  Because then and only then will they have ceased their unconscionable exclusion of entire cultures in order to obsessively revere their own.

Again, there is every reason to be pleased that Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, a pair of marvelously gifted actors, were honored for this revival of the Pulitzer Prize winning Fences by August Wilson, written early in his career, when he was still an incredibly strong dramatist.  By all means, it is a hallmark occasion.  There still is, however, no reason to go to hell with oneself in celebration of Broadway's supposed social progress.  It is not dubbed The Great White Way by any sort of accident.  That description was and is meant to congratulate Caucasian people for simply breathing.  It is testament to the delusion of inherent superiority.  And it will take a great deal more than this memorable but nonetheless fleeting gesture to change that.

About the Author

Coming: "Angels Don't Really Fly" EP by Dwight Hobbes & The All-Star Hired Guns featuring Alicia Wiley. The crew: Me, Alicia Wiley, Stanley Kipper, Chico Perez, Jeff "Boday" Christensen, Aaron "Orange A.C." Cosgrove and Yohannes Tona. Singer-songwriter Dwight Hobbes recorded the single "Atlanta Children" (BeatBad Records) and gigged 10 years in the Long Island/NYC area, including The Other End, Kenny's Castaways and My Fathers Place. Fronted the Boston blues band Midlight. In Minneapolis, Hobbes opened for David Daniels at First Street Entry, James Curry at Terminal Bar, sat in with Yohannes Tona, Alicia Wiley at Sol Testimony's Soul Jam, The New Congress at Babalu, Willie Murphy at the Viking Bar and Wain McFarlane & Jahz at Lucille's Kitchen. Dwight Hobbes still drops in at the occasional open mic around town. Dwight Hobbes has written for ESSENCE, Reader's Digest, Washington Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, City Pages, Mpls/St. Paul, MN Law & Politics, Pulse of the Twin Cities, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Women & Word, San Diego Union-Tribune, The Circle, to Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder (where he contributes the commentary columns Hobbes In The House and Something I Said. He's spoken his mind over National Public Radio, Minnesota Public Radio and KMOJ in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Was regularly featured as guest commentator on NewsNight Minnesota (KTCA-Minneapolis/St. Paul) and Spectator (Minneapolis Television Network). His monthly column "Hobbes In The House" in MN Spokesman Recorder comments on domestic abuse and rape. His plays are Shelter - produced at Mixed Blood Theatre by Pangea World Theater, Dues - produced by Mixed Blood Theatre, University of Southern Illinois in Point of Revue, selected for Bedlam Theatre's 10-Minute Play Festival and published by Playscripts, Inc. You Can't Always Sometimes Never Tell - produced by Theater Center Philadelphia, Long Island University, reading at The Kennedy Center and published in the anthology CENTER STAGE, In the Midst - produced by Long Island University, starring Samuel E. Wright. Hobbes spoke on the panel "Farewell To August Wilson" at the Guthrie Theater, broadcast on Conversations With Al McFarlane (KFAI, KMOJ).

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