8/17/2023 0 Comments Othello deli![]() The campus branch of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) participated in the defense of Sheng with a statement published on the WSWS October 11 asserting that the claim that Sheng had committed “a racist act” by showing Olivier’s Othello “is as badly informed as it is false.” The statement went on to educate readers as to Olivier’s anti-racist intentions in deciding to wear dark makeup-Olivier believed it “snobbish” that, traditionally, white actors in the part had skirted the theme of race and the risk of offending audiences with the sight of a black man and a white woman in love by wearing much lighter makeup. Sheng was quickly replaced by Professor Evan Chambers, who pronounced that Sheng had committed “a racist act, regardless of the professor’s intentions.” Gier, no doubt in a panic, announced in an email to his entire department that “Professor Sheng’s actions do not align with our School’s commitment to anti-racist action, diversity, equity and inclusion.” The email also assured the SMTD faculty that the matter had been referred to the Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX Office. ![]() Sheng was called before the Dean of the SMTD, David Gier, and soon after the meeting “stepped away” from his teaching responsibilities, as the Daily put it. She had thought, the student said, that Michigan “was a safe space.” A first-year student in the class complained to the administration, later lamenting to the Michigan Daily that she had been “shocked” when she realized Othello was being played by a white actor. Olivier, in fidelity to Shakespeare’s play and its theme of racial prejudice, insisted on playing the “Moor” in very dark makeup. Early in the fall semester, Sheng screened for his undergraduate seminar in composition Olivier’s Othello in conjunction with teaching Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Otello. Sheng is the Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor of Composition at Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance (SMTD). This principle is under assault from oppressive forces that extend well beyond the university campus. We must say from the outset that at issue in the Sheng case, as the IYSSE and WSWS have insisted from the start, is the democratic principle of academic freedom. Apart from the piece’s shoddy scholarship, it deserves nothing less than contempt for its falsehoods in promoting the racialist orthodoxy that dominates the official culture in Ann Arbor and at campuses throughout the country. On November 16, the student newspaper Michigan Daily published an opinion article penned by student Darby Williams, headlined “Olivier’s Othello and Racism in Theatre.” Williams’ article-putting its obvious gaffes aside-presents a one-sided and ill-informed account of Laurence Olivier’s performance in the 1965 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy and of the work’s reception. ![]() The latest salvo has been fired in the attempt by race-obsessed elements at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to defend the administration’s attack on composer and professor Bright Sheng.
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