First, I appreciate the gentle approach being taken by everyone, and I understand my opinion is not a popular one here. So I appreciate you listening to my perspective.
In my opinion President Obama did nowhere near enough to improve race relations in America in any great capacity during his term in office. We voted in an African American president with 53% (I believe) of the popular vote. He could have spent 8 years fixing these issues and did virtually nothing. Two African American Attorney Generals and no meaningful change, as evidenced by the oppression being felt by many today. I understand that the theater industry is by and large made up of liberals (like this forum....which in my opinion SHOULD be staying apolitical but let's
@RonHebbard joke about "lil donnie's walls" in EVERY post he makes) but there are many Republicans in the theater industry who agree with Trump, know he is not a racist, and just aren't motivated to speak up when they know they are going to be attacked and blacklisted. We just vote in elections.
The blacklist being created to force theaters into taking a stand on the issue is outrageous. It is being done in a TON of industries. Many of the people running the groups/business putting up posts supposedly supporting the Black Live's Matter movement personally do not want to get involved because most businesses know better than to get involved in social issues. They are only doing so to protect one thing....their money. They don't want to go out of business because someone ASSUMES they are racist because they are a Republican or (god forbid) support Donald Trump.
Let's look at it another way....if you believe the mainstream media polls then 42-45% of America approves of Trump's job performance. Because the social media & mainstream media has done a masterful job of making Trump the villain in all of this (a sentiment some of you share based on your posts above) I think it is a fair assumption that most of those people approving of Trump do not believe business or individuals should be attacked for not wanting to get involved in social issues because of the negative
effect it could have on their business. So now you have business owners who, after struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic might alienate ANOTHER segment of their customer
base who agree that what happened was absolutely terrible, but don't agree with the direction many of the protests have taken.
People or businesses should not be attacked because they choose not to take a stand on the issue. It doesn't mean I don't agree with the cause (I do!) but because I don't want to get involved. Ostracizing a group who chooses not to get involved is jut wrong, and in my opinion is hurting the very cause they are trying to further.
So a few things with this argument I disagree with, some I can see the argument others are seemingly out of nowhere maybe a more insightful explanation?
No, President Obama didn't do enough to improve race relations but that is a hind sight thing. The country was still riding high on the first minority president, and can you blame them. Out of 44 prior presidents this is the first? There were also quite a few big deal issues that he was working on and wasn't getting a whole lot of support from anywhere in the government (it moves slow like any government) so placing emphasis on a past president seems to be what the
current administration likes to do.
Theatre has/is/will be always political. Its always talked about
current social problems. Its always rebelled or congratulated governments to say a
theatre forum should be "apolitical" is to me misunderstanding what
theatre is about. Many republicans may believe Donald Trump isn't racist but his actions and words seem to strongly suggest otherwise to many who's only skin in it was a question of if they viewed his statements as racist.
the blacklist being created is what unions do. If a
venue isn't doing what they need to do to make work safe, reasonable, and open to all its in the industries best interest to stay away from those venues. As a contractor I can choose to decline a client for any reason I wish. I can state this reason and
express to others why they should decline to work with said client to organize either a change or removal of the client. Thats capitalism. Many businesses that don't get involved with social issues is more likely they are wanting the most profit out of a situation and aren't sure which side they should
hitch their company with to maximize that profit. its not about "knowing better"
I also have an issue with the Polls of approval
rating, Many of them are skewed and even using the same data sets manipulating them can get vastly different % numbers.
Also businesses aren't being attacked. Their policies and views are being made public and what the general public chooses to do with that information (whether to support the business or stop using that business) is well within the rights of the consumer in a capitalist economy.
Again what I'm seeing from the arguments in favor of the
current administration is to pass the blame to everyone else. We all talk about personal responsibility but wont apply that to business owners or the government. My state is just as guilty of this as when bills get passed that negatively
effect us we don't look to how our representatives voted or fought for it we'd rather place blame on another states representative for not doing a enough or supporting the wrong cause.
Most of the bad media coverage that Trump has received is due to the no accountability (which is the same thing that the
current protests are about). Its built into our way of life right now and that is a major problem. We could argue for years about where it stemmed from (I believe its partially due to the litigious nature of american society), however the
current issues and complaints are about holding those we have placed to protect and serve accountable for the actions that they do. Whether that's a police officer or a board managing a theater, they're all accountable to the actions they take but have attempted to remove themselves from being accountable.
My own organization is struggling through the push from below to start being accountable with what we do and not just see ourselves as a necessary function that wont take any heat from the actions we do.