The Tide of Justice Is Turning. Will You Choose The Right Side?
When President Obama was running in the primary of his first term, I was touring in the 50th Anniversary World Tour of West Side Story. I was 21 years old and at that moment, I was what they called in theater a “Swing”. Because of my versatility and ethnic ambiguity, I could play multiple roles in the show in case someone got injured or needed to call out. Swings in the industry are particularly in-demand, and since West Side Story centered itself around the racial territorial battles between the Italian and Puerto Rican gangs of New York, ultra light-skin African American theater performers like myself were the perfect fit to play roles on both sides if needed. I was dark enough to be Latino, white enough to play Italian. (Imagine a world where your multi-ethnicity is an asset!)
The two roles I understudied were Chino: the Puerto Rican Shark betrothed to Maria…who has to tell Maria that her lover, Tony, (who’s a Jet), killed her brother, Bernardo in a knife fight.
And Baby John: the youngest in the Italian gang of Jets who is forced, at the age of 15, to rape Anita, Maria’s best friend and Bernardo’s girlfriend, in front of the rest of the Jets in the back room of the neighborhood convenience store.
I played only 3 shows as Chino, over 100 as Baby John. The rest of the shows, which totaled over 1,000, I played a Shark in the ensemble.
The insights this experience gave me at a young age, I believe, laid an intense framework for my political future. It’s rare that you’re given the task of being able to see and experience both sides. That term “both sides” has become a stake in the heart of lady liberty by the hands of our current president, but when you can take the term and meditate on its intentions, you will find yourself in a place where you can open your mind to both sides, before taking one. The absence of this process of evaluating the arguments and making sure you were aware of the depths of the issues at hand, who and what is at stake, what those stakes are and how they affect the outcomes now and in the future is the crux of the racial predicament we are in today.
Luckily, I was not plunged into evaluating and choosing a side personally in my practice as an actor, it was my job and it was all make believe. But the essence of mastering the craft of acting is to understand what truly and naturally drives an actor to do and say anything. Literally anything and everything. From walking, to sitting to moving any muscle. There is intention, subtext and a goal in mind behind every action. Without this deep evaluation, you have no true understanding of the character’s motives and intentions you are tasked to portray. This in-depth character study is the key to a realistic and believable performance and those who do not take this to heart and into account, never fully achieve mastery of the craft. I believe this process is the same process we must apply to our racial problems and sensitivities and give ourselves the opportunity to choose the right course. To do the right thing and to come to the aid of the Black community, who has been suffering for hundreds of years at the hands of white America, should be your decision to make. If given the knowledge, if the journey for truth still makes you choose the side of the oppressor, you deserve to suffer the consequences of your actions. At this point, ignorance is no longer acceptable, it’s criminal.
Going through this experience while watching on world news the rise of the first Black man I had ever seen clinch the Democratic Nomination for President, it sparked a fire within my soul that could light up the entire universe. It sparked a confidence, almost super-power like that I had never experienced before in my life. And it not only sparked the fire within me, but an entire generation of young Black leaders who were just waiting for their cultural Martin Luther King, Jr. to arrive. It gave me the confidence as a young black man, that I could be President some day. The most powerful man in the world. And since that moment, I change my career, joined the Democratic Party and have since been forging a path for my black and gay brothers and sisters inspired by the very man who did what many thought was the impossible. And throughout the last 12 years of grass-roots activism, playing and learning the game, making mistakes but building allies, our moment finally has come.
We have been bred from the finest of pedigrees to take on the battles that have been waged against Black people for centuries. We are on the boards, on the commissions, the committees and have leadership positions in top roles throughout the Democratic Party. And we’ve only just begun. And it is because of the perseverance of this new pedigree of Black American Freedom fighters and the support of the white people who have done their “Both Sides” research, that we are better positioned now than ever before to take back the country we built and finally achieve the dreams our founding fathers provided us. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all.
And now, the choice is yours. Will you be on the right side of history? Will you join the ranks of the Black American Freedom Fighter and fight for the liberty and freedom our country was built on? You have been given all the knowledge, the insight and proof you need to make the right choice. If not, you have chosen to suffer the derelict consequences that come to the inhumane and morally bankrupt. You will be fired, you will be replaced, forced to resign and your legacy stained by your own racist ignorance. What choice will you make?
