DIVERSITY
Who Protects Black Actors and Actresses After Diverse Casting Decisions?
Diversity must be more than a surface-level
The announcement that Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, a Black British actress, would play the leading role in Jamie Lloyd's production of Romeo & Juliet last spring was met with a storm of racist backlash. "I received death threats, hate mail sent to the theatre," and "I didn't feel safe at work," she revealed in an interview published in The Stage, describing her experience. The racist critique that a Black woman should never be cast to play Juliet contributed to a hostile work environment. While production companies are often praised for their diverse casting decisions, we should ask who protects Black actors and actresses in the aftermath.
In a society where Black women are routinely attacked for not living up to European beauty standards, what measures should be taken after announcing that a Black woman will play a leading role? The colorblind approach, which assumes the race of the individual actor or actress won't matter, leaves them vulnerable to attack. For instance, in the case of Amewudah-Rivers, she was cast to play the role of Juliet, a character typically portrayed as a White woman. The production company could have anticipated racist resistance because of the prevalence of…
