Earlier today, Tim Rhoze, artist director of Evanston's Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, shared this piece with me.
In his email, he said, "This is me... This is how I feel today. How I felt yesterday. Let's see how I feel tomorrow." "Untitled"
We are no longer interested in condemning you and those who look like you.
Condemn yourself.
We have no need for your apologies in your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram postings.
We have no need for your streaming sing-a-longs and op-ed diatribes.
...Or your front lawn signs.
We have no time for your guilt. Feel guilty on your own time.
We know OUR LIVES MATTER.
Do you?
...Then take action.
Stop murdering us.
And don’t confuse the bullets in our backs, or the knees on our necks as the only ways you are murdering us.
You murder us with inefficient and ineffective education.
You murder us with inefficient and ineffective health care.
You MURDER US with inefficient and ineffective opportunities to own our own businesses, and own our own homes and to be decision makers in the organizations that you have historically built and profited from on the backs of our free labor.
Let’s be clear, this did not begin with the MURDER of our brother George Floyd. Let’s be clear, it will not END with the murder of our brother George Floyd.
Tell you what; You do you.
We gonna do us.
We gonna RE-focus on supporting, and protecting, and warning and loving those who look like us, who share our experiences.
What??
Can you help? Yassssss!
Stop murdering us.
-Tim Rhoze
Note: Tim is directing a Zoom production of the play Day of Absence, written by Douglas Turner Ward, which will be presented at 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 20 to mark Juneteenth.
The play--a reverse minstrel show/comedy/farce featuring Black actors in white face (and one white character) was written in 1965.
The play depicts chaos descending on a typical southern town when the Black people--whose work makes the whites’ privilege possible--fail to show up for work. It's over-the-top humor provides sharp commentary on systemic racism in 1965 ... and is still relevant today.
A group of professional actors and community members will perform.
Mark your calendars for 6 p.m., Saturday, June 20 and tune in! Watch it streaming here on DE!
The play is part of the weekend's Evanston Juneteenth Parade organized by Kemone Hendricks of Evanston Present and Future. For more information about the weekend's events, click here.
Read my interview with Tim Rhoze from 2017 here.
