Intervention am Institut für Afrikawissenschaften der HU Berlin

Am 29.05.2012 werden wir mit Bühnenwatch dem IAAW, Insitut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften an der HU Berlin, einen Besuch abstatten. 

Bühnenwatch, PRESS PLAY und die Fachschaft laden alle Interessierten ein…

„Behind the scenes – performing identity between cultural appropriation and self positioning“

Ein Gespräch mit Bühnenwatch zu Theater & Rassismus

am Dienstag, 29.05.2012, um 20 Uhr im Raum 410,

Seminar für Afrikawissenschaften,

Invalidenstraße 118, 10115 Berlin

Zur Diskussion sind anwesend: Bühnenwatch, ein Zusammenschluss von Aktivist_innen of Color, Schwarzen und weißen Aktivist_innen, die sich zum Ziel gesetzt haben, rassistische Praktiken an deutschen Bühnen zu beenden, die Fachschaft, und die Teilnehmer_innen des Seminars „PRESS PLAY – Vom Seminarraum auf die Bühne“.

Der Kontext: Im Seminar soll eine “afrikanische” Adaption des Stückes „Die Vögel“ mit “afrikanischem” Tanz, “afrikanischem” Storytelling und “afrikanischem” Trommeln ausgearbeitet und aufgeführt werden.

FYI: Another Blackface “incident” in a German Theater! Please rant!

Hello everybody,

as some of you might have already seen on yo, is this racist? there is - once again I must say - another theater production in a Berlin based german theater company where they use Blackface instead of Black actors! 

As if that wasn´t stupid enough, no the theater decided not to take any of the criticism seriously and/or maybe refrain from showing the play “I`m not Rappaport” by Herb Gardner, they first made fun of the criticism, second (and this is still going on) denied any racist implications by painting a white man black (it´s a “tradition”, you know…) and third complain about being labeled “racist” which is very mean, hurts their feelings and most importantly of course, we cannot prove the racism. Plus, the theater director said he is against racism and likes all people! But because stubborn narrow-minded anti-racist activists tend to be extremely dramatic and exaggerating with “accusing” random unreflected white people of racism - which is of course bullocks, since racism has been dismissed from Germany`s official agenda in dunno 1945?! (back me up on this one please), a person cannot be racist because there is no racism. And blackfacing is a good ol´german theater tradition, or maybe is this just another defense mechanism? Right.

With the theater´s first official statement they did let us know that they simply didn´t have any Black actors at hand, and that there is no need for hiring a Black actor in a german theater because there are not even enough roles for them to play, because all the plays are from white people for white people so why bother. And since Blackface is such a wonderful german “tradition” that nobody has ever protested against they decided it´s a *fabolous* idea! Here is the original quote: 

“Kaum einem Ensemble eines Theaters in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz gehören schwarze Schauspieler an. Allein deswegen, weil das Stückrepertoire der Theater ihnen zu wenige Rollen in einer Spielzeit bieten könnte, die ein Festengagement rechtfertigten.”

So the saga continues, business as usual: 

Racism is performed. 

Racism gets named as such and is criticized.

Performers of racism deny racism.

Critizers of racism start to explain the racism. Links, Videos, Articles etc. are being posted. 

Performers still in denial. Get touchy. Start talking about their feelings. “It´s unfair! I know black people….”

Anti-Racists continue explaining. It gets tiring.

Racists still deny racism by making racist remarks.

It gets nasty. Very open about their racism-racists show up, posting n-words all over the place. 

Anyhow, you get the system. 

Racism is still not recognised as the problem. Instead activism against racism gets problematized. Nothing new. 

I do encourage everybody here to VENT! 

Go over to Das Schlosspark-Theater´s facebook page and have your say on Blackface and racism! 

THANK YOU! 

More soon…

UPDATE: Here you can find all the informations, letters, mails, links that have already been sent or posted or whatever: Mostly in german it is.