HowlRound: As an Arab American, raised Muslim, and someone who loves the theatre, I raced to the last performance of Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, a Pulitzer prize-winning play that explores Islamophobia and the self-identity of Muslim-Americans. While fast-paced and gripping, I am disappointed to report that this play does little to challenge Islamophobia and causes more harm to the Muslim community. It also misses an opportunity to link the common struggles of oppressed people. Instead, it pits oppressed people against each other in what scholar and activist Andrea Smith refers to in her paper “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy” as an ‘oppression olympics’ of sorts—an “I am more oppressed than thou competition.”
1 comment:
I have read about this play in the past and was actually very curious, since no, there aren't a lot of plays in the U.S. about Islam, and Middle Eastern Americans, in post 9-11 America. And it seems like a huge issue that hasn't been fully addressed. It seems to me that what needs to be portrayed by the media, and literature, from this article and other stories, is that the stereotypes against islam are not true, and are in a large part spread by fear in this country. But when I learned that this play was not that, but contained moments such as violence from the Middle EAstern protagonist... It leads me to believe that as the author of this article says, it's hurting the image of Islamic Americans, and not aiding it. I hope someone creates another play addressing this issue, combatting the sensationalism that is present in this play.
Also, in this article, it really did make me think about the struggle between races and essentially "who has it harder".That's a tough question and I'd rather not try to answer it, but he's right in saying that, yes pitting races against each other, and bashing other races in a platform trying to enlighten others on on race is counterintuitive.
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