Comments on: The Dangers of Hairspray https://contemporaryracism.org/906/the-dangers-of-hairspray/ An academic blog about whiteness, implicit bias, and systemic racism Sun, 18 Dec 2016 03:00:15 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Dena https://contemporaryracism.org/906/the-dangers-of-hairspray/comment-page-1/#comment-830 Mon, 12 Dec 2016 16:16:20 +0000 http://www.professorwolfe.com/blog/?p=906#comment-830 In reply to goodatcare.

Well obviously the first five minutes aren’t representative of the development of the play as a whole. The intention of all of those lines is to establish racism and segregation on the CC Show. The question isn’t whether there are racist people on the show. Obviously there are. There is no argument about that.
But the rest of the play shows how Tracy and her friends work to desegregate the show.
The question of racism comes up in the stereotypical portrayal of POC and whether Tracy only succeeds through cultural appropriation, and whether that makes the message of the show racist.

]]> By: goodatcare https://contemporaryracism.org/906/the-dangers-of-hairspray/comment-page-1/#comment-813 Fri, 09 Dec 2016 01:08:43 +0000 http://www.professorwolfe.com/blog/?p=906#comment-813 I watched the first five minutes or so and found the following :
Nice white kids
who like to lead the way

And once a month
we have our Negro Day
. .

You’re letting her listen
to that race music again?

. . . .

“Detroit sound”?

What’s that, the cries
of people being mugged?

Aw, velma, the kids dig
the rhythm and blues.

Yeah, they’re kids, Corny.

That’s why we have to steer
them in the white direction.

I turned it off ……. it sounded racist to me.

]]> By: Joe https://contemporaryracism.org/906/the-dangers-of-hairspray/comment-page-1/#comment-756 Sun, 04 Sep 2016 20:34:39 +0000 http://www.professorwolfe.com/blog/?p=906#comment-756 Are there musicals out there that deals with averse racism? I’ve been looking and can’t find much.

]]> By: Alexis https://contemporaryracism.org/906/the-dangers-of-hairspray/comment-page-1/#comment-204 Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:41:45 +0000 http://www.professorwolfe.com/blog/?p=906#comment-204 I have seen the movie Hairspray as well as having seen the Broadway production. I think that yes, the perpetuation of sterotypes is not good however, when done in a way that almost mocks the absurditiy of those sterotypes it makes it easier to swallow for whites (in my opinion). When you see a film and you can see that these kids just want to dance and have a good time and that they are not permitted to “mix” because of race it creates a natural question of “why” and at least starts a thinking process that will possibly lead to a discussion. I think that often times it is a starting place for conversation. For me the biggest issue is seeing it as something was “in the past”…my daughter made a comment about being happy that she didn’t live in the 60’s. This bothered me because I don’t think her sentiments are unlike many others; racism is something that was “then” and somehow “now” is better. If nothing else it starts the conversation going.

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