Oppressing the Oppressor

The history of the world is filled with stories of individuals and groups beaten down by injustice and oppression. The caste system cruelly labeled individuals as untouchables. Whites bought, sold, and enslaved black human beings The Germans fought to eradicate the Jews. Rwandan genocide. Salem witch trials. Haun’s Mill massacre. Moment after tragic moment, human beings justified their shameful tyranny.

Headlines today expose the potent power of hatred. A pandemic spreading with its alarmingly contagious virus of self-claimed superiority. Emerging from the rubble and destruction left in the wake of its disgusting indulgence emerges pain that few are courageous enough to truly see.

Inequality is fueled by fear. Fear of differences. Fear of the unfamiliar. But it’s also perpetuated by emotional atrophy.

The Blacks was a play written by Jean Genet that opened May 4th, 1961 at the St. Marks Playhouse in New York City. It became the longest-running off-Broadway of the decade with 1,408 performances. Among the 12 original black cast members was Maya Angelou who played the White Queen, however initially Maya Angelou refused to take part in the play.

After Maya’s third reading of the manuscript, the meaning of the play came into focus. Maya recalls, “Genet suggested that colonialism would crumble from the weight of its ignorance…