July 2nd found Amy Goodman (Democracy Sometimes!) introducing a guest thusly, "Our next guest has been hailed as the most exciting individual in American theater. She has won numerous awards including two Obies, several Tony nominations, and a MacArthur genius grant. I’m talking about the acclaimed actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith." For the record, "several Tony nominations" are not an "award." A nomination is an "honor" (as in, "It's an honor just to be nominated") a Tony itself is an "award." Yeah, she had on Hazel from All My Children. When she appeared on NOW on PBS in 2006, David Brancaccio understood the difference, "Twilight: Los Angeles, which examined the civil unrest following the Rodney King verdict in Los Angeles, received critical acclaim on Broadway and earned Smith two Tony nominations, as well as numerous other honors." Honors, Goody, not awards. For the record, that was 1994 (hopefully, society has progressed since then -- we'll get to it) and she lost play of the year to very worthy winner Tony Kuschner's Angels in America, she lost best actress awared to the very worthy Diana Rigg and, if you're not getting how hard up they were for nominees in 1994, among the four 'actresses' nominated? Joan Rivers. For playing herself and answering to the name "Sally Marr." Maybe Goody can next interview Rivers? We're sure Rivers would be willing to cross-promote via The Home Shopping Network. There was no reason to have Anna Deavere Smith on. What Goody told you was "her latest book" was a 'book' published two years ago.
Anna Deavere Smith is not a 'playwright.' She's Studs Terkel without the perspective of the sociological framework (and, for those not in the know, Working flopped on Broadway).
We're going to make a point that needs to be made now and will be made in coming decades. It applies to Anna Devaere Smith and it applies to others as well: Stop.
If it's still not clear to 'actress' and 'playwright' Deavere Smith, she lost a Tony in a year when Joan Rivers was one of her three competitors. That should say a great deal in and of itself.
You're not an actress. It's why you have no career outside of your own works. Now, yes, when acting your stereotypes, you do find a freedom that you're not able to demonstrate in your bit parts in film and television (there you do the 'intense' look that Joey Tribbiani should have sent up on Friends or else you're just another bland and blank face reciting dialogue). You cobble together some stereotypes for your 'plays' (which are nothing but unshapen, cobbled together transcripts) and seem to think you're doing the world a favor. You're not. Stop.
Your work is racist.
Just stop it.
Someone should have told you that long ago. Some say you're 'talented.' Al Jolson actually was (he could sing -- in his own voice). Al Jolson in Blackface today is not something most people want to see. You're going to find, as the years go by, that no one wants to see that crap.
Smith does not use make up but Blackface was never about just makeup. It was about stereotypical portrayals.
Jolson, by all accounts, was an advanced Jewish man (White) for his time. Doesn't change the fact that the bulk of Americans are not interested today in seeing his once much applauded performances in Blackface. He had enough talent to do without it and frequently did. But it got 'attention' and it got 'applause' and it was trotted out repeatedly. (He was far from the only one. And not all of the others can be said to have been 'advanced' for their times.)
As late as 1968, Blackface was still common. In fact, Diana Ross caused an uproar in England by objecting to minstrel shows being used in a Royal Performance for the Queen. Ross was savaged for stating the obvious, for calling out the very real offense. We're under no illusions that everyone reading this will get the point right away. But we will go on record stating that it's not 'cute,' it's not 'funny' to portray stereotypes on stage even when you say you're doing it in 'love.' It's offensive.
Last week, Goody was insisting that Deavere Smith "gives voices to people who while they may be able to speak other populations don't hear those voices." Gives voices to people? Want to give voices to people? Get your ass offstage and "people" can replace you.
What Deavere Smith provides is racist stereotypes and, if you doubt that, listen to what Goody presented from Twilight, a Korean shopkeeper played by Deavere Smith. About as 'enlightening' as Mel Gibson saying "fwied lice" for "fried rice" in Lethal Weapon IV. Deavere Smith, 'giving voice,' was Deavere Smith saying "enn-ohhh-sense" for "innocence" in a thick, stereotypical accent. Saying "Howwywood" for "Hollywood," "veec-TIM" for "victim," "weft out" for "left out" and screaming (about the way Koreans were treated in contrast to African-Americans -- Deavere Smith is African-American), "We didn't get any because we have kar and house and we are high tax payer!"
It wasn't enlightening, it wasn't funny. It wasn't entertainment. It was a hateful little stereotype and Korean-Americans don't need it. While Goody was insisting, "you change, you transform," the reality was that Deavere Smith trotted out stereotypes that, if done by Jerry Lewis, would lead to protests.
Anna Deavere Smith is not Korean-American, is not Asian-American. She does not give them voice, she stereotypes them.
It was hilarious to hear Goody claim Deavere Smith gave voice to populations that others can't hear -- hilarious coming from Goody whose program reduces race to Black and White and really has no time for Asian-American issues. (Certainly couldn't honor the boycott called against Stephen Colbert for his own racist caricatures of Asian-Americans. Honor it or report on it.) Follow it, Goody's applauding Deavere Smith for 'giving voice' to others (via stereotypes) and doing so from a show that will allow a racist stereotype of an Asian-American to be performed by an African-American but will not bring on Asian-Americans to speak for themselves.
Not only can Deavere Smith provide the 'space' for those voices to honestly speak by getting her ass offstage whenever she's tempted to 'speak for' another community via stereotypes, Goody can provide a 'space' for Asian-Americans by bringing them on her show and stop playing clips of non-Asisan-Americans presenting stereotypes of Asian-Americans.
Deaver Smith would do well to grasp that if she was truly concerned about 'giving voice,' she could speak in her own voice while reciting lines of Korean-American character. There's no need to 'send up' or resort to stereotypes. What she does doesn't prove that Deaver Smith has a great range of talent, it proves that she can trot out stereotypes and thinks she can get away with it.
If she used her own voice, the same lines might be "giving voice." When she's saying "weft out" and her other 'cute' pronunciations, she's not "giving voice." She's just one in a long line of performers who have thought they could have it both ways: Repeat a stereotype but say it's 'out of love' and garner praise for being so 'advanced.'
It's not advanced. It's disgraceful and shameful. At a time when Asian-Americans are regularly shut out by Broadway, TV and film, Deavere Smith isn't doing any favors by offering her impersonations -- from outside that culture -- of them. It's offensive. Repeating: Stop.