Chicago Theaters Closing Doors on Critic Who Called Out Black-on-Black Violence

It is verboten to suggest that blacks examine their own community.

6.23.2017

News

A longtime Chicago theater critic who dared suggest that black-on-black violence might be more of a problem than cop-on-black violence is being denied invitations to review shows around town due to her "hate and ignorance."

The Chicago Tribune reports that on June 13 Hedy Weiss, who is white, reviewed Pass Over by New York playwright Antoinette Nwandu, which "riffs on Waiting for Godot by swapping the usual protagonists for two young black men, who are alternately seduced and terrorized by two white characters," one of whom is a police officer. Commenting on Nwandu's choice of villain, Weiss wrote, "No one can argue with the fact that this city… has a problem with the use of deadly police force against African-Americans. But, for all the many and varied causes we know so well, much of the lion's share of the violence is perpetrated within the community itself."

This blunt reality incensed a group of local artists calling itself the Chicago Theater Accountability Coalition (ChiTAC), which complained about what they called Weiss' lengthy pattern of "racism, homophobia, and body shaming found in her reviews." The group began circulating a petition at Change.org and claims that 70 of the city's 200-odd theaters have agreed not to provide Weiss with complimentary tickets to review a show.

Broken Nose Theatre, for example, posted a link on Facebook to the petition and said it already has a policy of "not inviting any critic who utilizes their reviews to unapologetically espouse and propagate racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise bigoted and malicious views." Representatives for Writers Theatre said "those who do choose to use language that espouses hate or ignorance will not be invited to attend as guests" of the theater.

But ChiTAC didn't stop with a petition. Unnamed sources in the theater community told the Tribune that ChiTAC has made repeated calls and sent emails to local theaters, pressuring them to sign the petition.

Weiss' critics pointed to offensive examples such as a 2013 review of a work about the racial profiling of Muslims in which she wrote, "What practical alternative to racial profiling do you suggest?" How is that offensive? She is also being criticized for "body-shaming" characters in a recent production of Mamma Mia! by referring to the "real women" figures onstage in contrast to "the perfect bodies of the terrific chorus dancers." Again, how is that offensive? Are we no longer allowed to point out the obvious fact that some people have better bodies than others? Or the undeniable fact that the vast majority of black victims of gun violence are victimized by other blacks, not white cops?

Apparently not, because Steppenwolf Artistic Director Anna D. Shapiro and Executive Director David Schmitz said in a statement that Weiss' review "once again revealed a deep-seated bigotry and a painful lack of understanding of this country's historic racism."

Tribune theater critic Chris Jones defended Weiss, telling the Tribune,

"The play in question here is a searing and highly potent response to... what it is like to live under the stress of constant gun violence. It also made unstinting allegations against the police, which have some justification, given what history has taught us. This is especially true in Chicago. The play had every right to make those charges. We could all do to discuss them.

"But anyone who writes such an incendiary play — wherein the police are, by symbolic implication, murderers — and any theater that produces it, should not try to silence strong oppositional reactions. It should welcome them. The solution to this problem requires us all to come together.

"I was stunned by the Steppenwolf statement accusing a critic they have welcomed with open arms for 25 years or more of long-standing, deep-seated bigotry."

Playwrights Idris Goodwin, who is black, and Kevin Coval, white, disagreed:

"This is about culturally white theater spaces and the white critics who preserve systemic inequity. Hedy is just a white person aligned with whiteness, no surprise there. But there are larger issues at play, among them the lack of racial equality and accountability in cultural institutions here and across the country. This is also an indictment of the media for its lack of diverse critical voices."

What none of Weiss' critics seems to want to address is the cold, hard truth of her comment about the scourge of black-on-black violence, which has devastated Chicago harder than just about anywhere in the country. Anyone who believes that black lives matter and wants to do something about it should begin by addressing that.