Actors' Equity Association: On Thursday, June 3, Equity’s Equal Employment Opportunity Committee held its biannual dialogue on race, with theatre artist and activist Kaja Dunn.
Dunn began with asking participants to define race and racism, and shared information about the way they function in the United States, how people of color are at greater risk of discrimination in everything from housing to healthcare to incarceration, and how there is ample evidence that these outcomes are not innate.
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Kaja Dunn’s comments on how to deal with racism in theater directly coincided with some of the information addressed in Anti Racism and Equitable Practices in Theater, which is kind of comforting. While there’s still so many more aspects of the industry that need to be addressed and fixed, it’s comforting that the next generation of theater artists are getting an education in line with the needs of black and brown people within the industry. I was specifically intrigued by how black work is categorized and dealt with as an “other” from the “normal work” (work done by white people). The practice acknowledging black achievement as an other is the basis for the racist idea that “their work is good for a black artist”. It’s sad to see that kind of sentiment be prevalent in my own industry, but I’m excited to listen to and amplify black and brown voices within the industry whenever I can.
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