Tuesday, December 04, 2018
The Rockettes and Race: A Very White Christmas
The New York Times: On Wednesday, as it happened, I went to see the “Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes,” which is something you can do at 11 o’clock in the morning in late November in Manhattan. I was by myself. My son, like so many children growing up in New York and fed with its imperious cultural attitudes, would sooner eat a head of escarole than choose to see something dependent on the word “spectacular” as a noun.
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I had no idea that this history of the Rockettes was so marred by explicit racism, but it really isn't all that surprising to me. It was very disappointing to learn that it took 62 years of performances (from 1925 to 1987) for a woman of color to be able to join the dance troupe. The quote that struck me the most in this article was "there were, in the end, more camels on stage than black women". To me this is just completely unacceptable, especially with women of color still making up only 10% of the group. It's not like the talent isn't there, it's truly just a deeper issue of racism in casting. Someone I follow on instagram is good friends with one of the only black women in the Rockettes, and recently he shared a video of him pointing out that her image is used three times in the poster. This was obviously to make them seem more diverse, while you can easily see this isn't the reality if you watch a performance. If they want to market themselves with some degree of diversity then as an organization they need to commit to hiring significantly more dancers of color.
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