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Wilmette cancels 'Ragtime' due to language
Chicago Sun Times ^ | 06/27/08

Posted on 06/27/2008 9:43:42 AM PDT by Borges

click here to read article


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The usual suspects are offended by anything and would rather pretend it didn't exist.
1 posted on 06/27/2008 9:43:42 AM PDT by Borges
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To: Borges
People need to grow up and see such plays, music, books as a product of their time - if anything it could be educational as it highlights the mores of different decades.

the liberal elite need to give folks more credit for being bright enough to work these things out for themselves.

2 posted on 06/27/2008 9:47:49 AM PDT by vimto (To do the right thing you don't have to be intelligent - you have to be brave (Sasz))
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To: Borges

It’s worse than that, this Park Executive Director simply arbitrarily decided this. He made no mention of some much as a single protest. He simply assumed someone of color would get “offended.”

So how many “people of color” has he offended by cancelling the production? Maybe some local black group should picket or threaten to sue over this censorship.

My head is spinning, but it might work.

Spike Lee, Tyler Perry, call your office.


3 posted on 06/27/2008 9:52:20 AM PDT by sinanju
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To: Borges

Plastic history, how sweet.


4 posted on 06/27/2008 9:58:27 AM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: Borges

It’s too bad none of them ever read the book. I don’t know what the play is like but the book is terrific. A very interesting read - and it’s not at all about ethnic/race conflict.


5 posted on 06/27/2008 10:02:10 AM PDT by ladyjane
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To: ladyjane

The play probably takes off as much from the movie as the book. The film focused on the racial conflict.


6 posted on 06/27/2008 10:03:05 AM PDT by Borges
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To: Borges
Really? The film focused on race? Huh.

The book was really terrific and most of it - IIRC - was about a history of Jews who came here to the Lower East Side and their descendants. One small part of it was about blacks. It was a very interesting read.

7 posted on 06/27/2008 10:09:56 AM PDT by ladyjane
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To: Borges

Funny how they can’t even print the word, either. Even now I’m afraid to type it!


8 posted on 06/27/2008 10:11:45 AM PDT by the_devils_advocate_666
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To: Borges

How come black folks still use the N-word themselves (I’ve heard them!) and yet white folks can’t? That’s a racist, double standard.


9 posted on 06/27/2008 10:14:38 AM PDT by TexasRepublic (When hopelessness replaces hope, it opens the door to evil.)
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To: Borges
But wait ... isn't this considered art? If so, can't artists get by with anything in the name of free speech, like creating a virgin Mary out of dung, "piss" Jesus, etc.?

/s

10 posted on 06/27/2008 10:18:33 AM PDT by al_c (Avoid the consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity)
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To: sinanju
Maybe some local black group should picket or threaten to sue over this censorship.

A local black group on the North Shore? Outside of Evanston there aren't enough blacks on the North Shore to form much of a group.

Don't blame blacks or their leaders for the p.c. attitues of a Wilmette Park District official. Wilmette is overwhelmingly white. I can't imagine any black group being so p.c., especially with a history based musical like "Ragtime".

11 posted on 06/27/2008 10:19:15 AM PDT by MurryMom
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To: MurryMom
From wikipedia: As of the census[21] of 2000, the racial makeup of the village was:

89.66% White,

0.56% Black

0.04% Native American

8.16% Asian

0.01% Pacific Islander

0.42% from other races

1.15% from two or more races.

Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.08% of the population.

12 posted on 06/27/2008 10:36:22 AM PDT by BureaucratusMaximus (Game over man...GAME OVER!)
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To: Borges

“Ragtime” is liberal claptrap, so they’re not missing anything.


13 posted on 06/27/2008 11:01:21 AM PDT by popdonnelly (Does Obama know ANYONE who likes America, capitalism, or white people?)
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To: Borges

A worse crime is banning the novel “Huckleberry Finn”, in which the most noble and sympathetic character is the slave, Jim.


14 posted on 06/27/2008 11:03:30 AM PDT by popdonnelly (Does Obama know ANYONE who likes America, capitalism, or white people?)
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To: al_c

Are these same people as outraged about “The Vagina Monologues”? I’ve heard that play has some strong language and themes in it.

So where does one draw the line on various issues like this? Disney has censored its own movie “Song of the South” for racial reasons. The slaves depicted in the movie were stereotypical and not politically correct.

It’s strange to go to Disneyland and see some depictions of Brer Rabbit and Brer Bear, who were in “Song of the South”. I wonder if little kids today even know who those characters are, because they have never been allowed to see the movie.


15 posted on 06/27/2008 11:58:46 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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Limousine Liberals at play.”You can’t make this stuff up.”


16 posted on 06/27/2008 2:16:25 PM PDT by Godwin1
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To: Borges
Wilmette Park District Executive Director Tom Grisamore said that the cancellation of "Ragtime" would does not mean that there will be no entertainment. In its place the district is showing a production of "Blazing Saddles- the Musical".


17 posted on 06/27/2008 5:36:15 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Given such dismal choices, I guess I'll vote for the old guy.)
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To: Borges

He’s a Bad Mother... but I’m talkin’ bout Shaft.

It’s hard to be a pimp.

Both won OSCARS in the past 40 years.

Some advancement.


18 posted on 06/28/2008 1:09:09 AM PDT by weegee
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To: the_devils_advocate_666

The media never hesitates to call Collin Powell or Condi Rice Uncle Toms.


19 posted on 06/28/2008 1:11:17 AM PDT by weegee
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To: Dilbert San Diego
How about we introduce some facts into this discussion?

There are no slaves in Song of the South. It takes place AFTER the civil war.

Also, the movie was released on home video in the 1980s and 1990s in Hong Kong, Japan, and Ireland. Possibly to other foreign markets as well. It wasn't until DVD made home video playback of foreign releases easy and cheap (the asian laserdiscs were upwards of $100 and Europe uses PAL video).

Another interesting fact, the man who voiced Brear Bear (sp?) also acted in the tv version of Amos & Andy (the radio show used “blackface” actors, white people reading the lines in dialect, but the tv show used black actors.

Anyway, that actor sold videotapes of the old Amos & Andy tv shows and used other income to fund a black theater group in California up to the time of his death (I think in the 2000s).

He didn't see shame in his work and he saw a way to give back to the community.

Political correctness demands revisionist history. All of it is Orwellian. All of it is Stalinist.

20 posted on 06/28/2008 1:18:00 AM PDT by weegee
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