Social Justice Event

For my social justice event requirement, Ana had found this show on the RIC website and thought it would be something interesting to go see and also fulfill another check off of our list of things to do before the end of the semester. Last Thursday night we went together to go see "La Negrita Revival" in Providence. Going in I pictured in my head a comedy about race and the culture of power and actors on a stage but we walk into the location and the show is in a room where its a black floor, black walls, and about 60 black folding chairs placed in a rectangular layout like in class. Walking in I was really nervous because it wasn't what I had expected at all, regardless we stayed. At first I was really confused but once it started going further along in the show I understood more of it. There was a black girl who was in a mental institution for an unknown reason but she kept saying it was because of the whites.La Negrita was the first friend came to visit was another black college student who attended college at the university of the triple K (KKK). She grew up believing that white is right and that whites are powerful and how she wanted to dress like white girls. The friend in the institution was very upset the La Negrita felt this was and she continued to have a tangent how whites are bad and how she was naive but she will learn someday when a white person treats her bad. At first I connected this to the culture of power because it showed how La Negrita felt like she was not good enough because she wasn't white but then SCWAAMP whiteness factor really had the main theme through out the whole play. There were other roles of college students who were a group of friends who represent all different cultures and identities, staging stereotypes. A Spanish girl who was bisexual but a true friend, a white male who was gay and was loyal, two white males that were jocks one more sensitive than the other, and a white female who wanted to be black and she was promiscuous. La Negrita was connected to each of these characters in some way. She was best friends what the white male that was gay and the Spanish female that was bisexual and the tough black girl in the institution. They were her main supporters, She fell in love with the white male jock that was ashamed to be with her and tried to get her to act white and told her she needed to work on it. He later abused her and took advantage of her. Where I also connected this to SCWAAMP's maleness and how society portrays him as more powerful and can do whatever he wants because he is a white male. La Negrita then became scornful of white people and psychology thought that she wasn't good for anything other than sex. She was so sick of the hurt and the pain that she just wanted to feel numb. Her friends could not understand her actions but then when they found out what happened to her gave her the help that she needed. She then met another guy at school and he was the other white jock but he was portrayed as nerdy. He really liked La Negrita and thought that she was beautiful for her and didn't understand why she had to make everything about race. But it was because she was so broken down from what happened before that she felt she knew her place in society was at the bottom. He showed her what love really is and how to love herself for who she is. Overall even though this was nothing that I had expected it to be, it was really interesting and I'm glad I went especially with Ana.