Would a trigger warning before showing 1965 Othello film have saved this professor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Insane. And I’m completely against black face. Would they also ban English books that mention slavery?

It's the Huckleberry Finn controversy again. The "n" word is in Huck Finn, yet it's a great book that is very anti-racist.

[Anonymous]

This might be a little off topic,

but is it ok if Olivier played the role without the black face.

Is it ok for an italian or an american soprano to play the lead role in Madam Butterfly? Should all ethnic roles in these performing arts work be reserved for ethnic actors/singers, hence off limits to all other performers?

Also, is it ok for a white or black person to wear Qi Pao, the traditional chinese dress. As a Chinese American, I am delightedly to see that someone (anyone) else appreciates the beauty and the elegance in Qi Pao, as long as they are wearing it respectfully like they would with any piece of garment.

This incident with the professor actually is bigger than simply he played something that is inappropriate in my opinion. What is appropriate and what is off limits these days can be so controversial and highly sensitive to different groups of society. When can we all just come together as one instead of segregated pieces of this world we live in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Geez, it's simple. Don't show things that use blackface. It's offensive, even on Olivier. Are there no other Othello productions he could show?

Yup — unless you’re teaching about blackface. This was a music composition class. Not clear why he was showing this film, but presumably whatever point he was making could have been made in a different way (using a different example, separating audio from video). And you always make strategic decisions like this when teaching — you don’t want the noise to drown out the signal.

You have absolutely no idea what his pedagogical goal was here and whether showing the Olivier Othello was important to meeting it.

You also don't know the first bolded part, therefore you don't know if the second bolded part is true. That's just your spin on it.

None of us does know. That’s the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Geez, it's simple. Don't show things that use blackface. It's offensive, even on Olivier. Are there no other Othello productions he could show?

Yup — unless you’re teaching about blackface. This was a music composition class. Not clear why he was showing this film, but presumably whatever point he was making could have been made in a different way (using a different example, separating audio from video). And you always make strategic decisions like this when teaching — you don’t want the noise to drown out the signal.

You have absolutely no idea what his pedagogical goal was here and whether showing the Olivier Othello was important to meeting it.

You also don't know the first bolded part, therefore you don't know if the second bolded part is true. That's just your spin on it.

None of us does know. That’s the point.

So defer to the guy who casually uses blackface without explaining why — either before or after. That seemed to be the point.

[Anonymous]

Context matters a lot here. This was apparently Day One of class, so no time for discussion, no time for trust-building.

I honestly can't believe that someone with his level of accomplishments would make such a rookie mistake. It's 2021. The youth are excitable. Take a beat, do some introduction, build some trust, and THEN show the blackface movie if there is an absolute pedagogical imperative that cannot be met with literally any other movie on earth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Geez, it's simple. Don't show things that use blackface. It's offensive, even on Olivier. Are there no other Othello productions he could show?

Yup — unless you’re teaching about blackface. This was a music composition class. Not clear why he was showing this film, but presumably whatever point he was making could have been made in a different way (using a different example, separating audio from video). And you always make strategic decisions like this when teaching — you don’t want the noise to drown out the signal.

You have absolutely no idea what his pedagogical goal was here and whether showing the Olivier Othello was important to meeting it.

You also don't know the first bolded part, therefore you don't know if the second bolded part is true. That's just your spin on it.

None of us does know. That’s the point.

So defer to the guy who casually uses blackface without explaining why — either before or after. That seemed to be the point.

Defer to the two-time-Pulitzer nominee and McArthur genius grant winner that it's possible he has a reason, not well-elucidated by student reporting, for showing this film in this class.

He does not "use blackface."

[Anonymous]

Reporting I've read says that this undergraduate seminar in music composition was meant to center on Verdi's Othello, as an example of how to build an opera score and libretto from an already existing narrative.

That's certainly a reasonable topic for the seminar to pursue. But what's not reasonable is the decision to show the Olivier film on the first day. A seminar that focuses on Othello would begin with the Shakespeare play, and have students read the text. Then discuss different issues in staging--including the long history of blackface performance. Maybe bring in a theater historian to talk about 19th century stagings of the play. And from there, you might go to the Verdi, and maybe onto other musical or operatic reworkings of narratives from other sources. Or maybe more adaptations and reworkings of Othello.

Really, I can't imagine a reason why anyone would begin a class on this topic with this film. I wonder whether it was out of some misguided attempt to get the students familiar with the story without having them actually read the play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He is a two-time Pulitzer nominee and a recipient of a MacArthur fellowship. And he has to leave the university for showing an Oscar nominated film. The university should defend him. Instead they’re too scared of accusations of racism to support their own scholars.

You clearly didn't read the article. He's not leaving the university, the article said he was coming back to teach his Winter seminar. He's just leaving this particular class.

But yes, kids these days are a bit much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He should have addressed and acknowledge it. He shouldn't have been fired.

You clearly didn't read the article. He's not leaving the university, the article said he was coming back to teach his Winter seminar. He's just leaving this particular class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He should have addressed and acknowledge it. He shouldn't have been fired.

You clearly didn't read the article. He's not leaving the university, the article said he was coming back to teach his Winter seminar. He's just leaving this particular class.

DP. He shouldn't have had to leave AT ALL. That's the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just FYI, if you use "cancel culture" as though it's a real thing, I am going to know you're not seriously engaged in understanding much of anything.

Why do you think this isn’t “cancel culture”?

Did someone lose a job that was essential to their survival? Does that person have no hope of getting a similar position that will allow them to continue to function in their chosen field?

Or some someone lazy/sloppy about following developments in their field, or deliberately offensive, and are they receiving consequences as a result?

My husband is a professor and he is one of the least offensive people in history. He actually has nightmares about making a mistake and getting “cancelled.” It is real.

He can avoid that by talking to his students in advance about how he wants to be respectful of everyone and make sure he doesn’t make people uncomfortable. He needs to stress that he wants students to let him know if he is accidentally offensive.

Sorry, but that is giving the spoiled brat snowflakes way too much power.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He should have addressed and acknowledge it. He shouldn't have been fired.

The students are adults not children. These days it seems everything needs a warning label.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What would happen if a music history professor showed West Side Story?

I took a history of film night class as a fun thing to do at the local university less than 5 years ago. The showed the 1927 film The Jazz Singer in which Al Jolson does appear in blackface. It's considered an important film because it definitively ends the era of silent films. No waring was given and nobody seemed to freak out. I can't imagine what would of happened today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This might be a little off topic,

but is it ok if Olivier played the role without the black face.

Is it ok for an italian or an american soprano to play the lead role in Madam Butterfly? Should all ethnic roles in these performing arts work be reserved for ethnic actors/singers, hence off limits to all other performers?

Also, is it ok for a white or black person to wear Qi Pao, the traditional chinese dress. As a Chinese American, I am delightedly to see that someone (anyone) else appreciates the beauty and the elegance in Qi Pao, as long as they are wearing it respectfully like they would with any piece of garment.

This incident with the professor actually is bigger than simply he played something that is inappropriate in my opinion. What is appropriate and what is off limits these days can be so controversial and highly sensitive to different groups of society. When can we all just come together as one instead of segregated pieces of this world we live in.

There is a long ugly history of blackface, set amidst the long ugly history of the oppression of Black Americans, who are still feeling the effects of discrimination in the 21st century. That’s why blackface causes so much turmoil and pain today. If you’d like some bibliography happy to share n

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This might be a little off topic,

but is it ok if Olivier played the role without the black face.

Is it ok for an italian or an american soprano to play the lead role in Madam Butterfly? Should all ethnic roles in these performing arts work be reserved for ethnic actors/singers, hence off limits to all other performers?

Also, is it ok for a white or black person to wear Qi Pao, the traditional chinese dress. As a Chinese American, I am delightedly to see that someone (anyone) else appreciates the beauty and the elegance in Qi Pao, as long as they are wearing it respectfully like they would with any piece of garment.

This incident with the professor actually is bigger than simply he played something that is inappropriate in my opinion. What is appropriate and what is off limits these days can be so controversial and highly sensitive to different groups of society. When can we all just come together as one instead of segregated pieces of this world we live in.

It would not be okay for them to wear yellow face to do it. I would not show Charlie Chan movies.