Indy News: The "N" Word Still OK in INDIANA

February 21, 2006


'RAGTIME' PLAY CONTROVERSY
Leaders see double standard



School officials cut wording some parents disliked but have kept racial slur in musical
By Robert King
robert.king@indystar.com
February 21, 2006


Black leaders charged Monday that a Far-Southside high school has a double standard when it comes to preserving the integrity of the script of a school musical.
Perry Township school officials have stood firm when it comes to keeping a racial slur in the script of "Ragtime," but have allowed references to masturbation and swearing in God's name to be removed.

Black leaders say the complaints about the sexual and religious references were from white parents, but their objections to a racial slur used seven times are being ignored."Are we not equal? Are we not just as good as they are? Are our concerns not just as valid?" said Margie Oakley, secretary of the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis, a group made up mostly of black ministers in the Indianapolis area.
The group said it likely would protest at performances of "Ragtime," which opens Thursday.

Speaking in front of the school district's headquarters, Oakley was joined by nearly a dozen black clergy who demanded the play be canceled or at least scrubbed clean of what Oakley called the "notorious N-word" when it is performed at Perry Meridian High School. The clergy were joined by black state representatives Greg Porter and Bill Crawford, both of Indianapolis, who said the district's stance on the racial slur was "hurtful" and "culturally insensitive."

While Perry school officials have stood by the script through criticism, they found themselves Monday defending their willingness to let it be altered in some places and not others. School district spokesperson Karen Cantou said she could not confirm that white parents had been the source of the objections to swearing in God's name and to masturbation. But she said Perry Superintendent H. Douglas Williams sees the racial slur as being more central to the integrity of the play than the references to God and sexuality that were removed. Williams, who was out of town Monday, is white. Likewise, white School Board member Gayle Houchin said the matters "fall into two different categories."

Cantou said district officials may revisit the issue of the script today in light of the clergy's concern about a double standard. It is possible that swearing in God's name and the masturbation references could be restored as a result, she said. The play opens Thursday night, with performances again on Saturday and Sunday.
Initially, Cantou said the district would not allow protesters on school grounds during the performances so as not to distract the students. That prompted some of the black clergy and legislators to say they were willing to be arrested if needed to voice their objections. Later in the day, Cantou said protests would not be hindered as long as walkways into the school building are kept clear.

Lee Robbins, a white parent who graduated from Perry schools two years before courts ordered black children from the Northeastside to be bused in for the sake of integration, remembers that many white families back then were fearful of what that change might mean. But two decades later, Robbins, now with his own kids in Perry schools and himself a School Board candidate, said the district has made much progress. He considers it progress that Perry Meridian is tackling the thorny issue of race in the student production "Ragtime."

Progress, though, is not what black religious and political leaders see in the production. They were particularly critical that parents from the Northeastside neighborhood that supplies the vast majority of Perry's black students were not consulted about the production of a play with heavy racial elements. Cantou said the plays directors are white teachers, but a school district diversity officer who is black was consulted.

"They keep telling us to get over it," said Crawford, whose House district includes many of the bused students' families. "I would suggest to you that the N-word is not getting over it. It is a hateful, hateful, painful, sorrowful, violent word that has no place in public education."
A generation gap

While the cultural gap was being highlighted Monday, the controversy also spotlights something of a generation gap. Most of the clergy members present Monday were over 50. But black cast members at Perry Meridian High have said the harsh language, while unpleasant, is necessary to convey the truth from a past era.
Sophomore Steven Sizemore, 16, plays Tateh, a poor Jewish immigrant from Latvia. During a break in rehearsals Monday afternoon, he said the strong language in "Ragtime" is vital in the musical's effort to accurately portray the ugliness of that period of American history.