On April 7, at 1:00 p.m. in the Olin Rice Atrium, there will be a staged reading of a play called “Combination Skin.” On one hand, the play pokes fun at the “tragic mulatto” literary trope, and on the other, it addresses some very complex issues that exist within the black diaspora. I happened to come across this play a year or two ago, while browsing through Contemporary Plays by Women of Color. After reading it, I knew I wanted to see it performed at Macalester before I graduated. Luckily, the Black Women’s Collective agreed to sponsor this effort, and this Sunday, a production of “Combination Skin” will be a reality.

My only concern while preparing for this, however, has been the issue of publicity and my desire to make the broader Macalester community feel welcome. While brainstorming this dilemma, the echoes of white students who have felt that either they weren’t targeted to attend such activities as the African American Studies Conference, or, that they felt that these “types” of events were not really intended for them, weaken my hopes of a varied and representative turnout for the production.

This isn’t to say that there should not be a space in which students of color have the freedom to discuss things that affect them among their peers, because I do not feel that way in the least. I am, however, frustrated by the apathy of many students who do not identify as being “of color” when it comes to supporting these events and having a sincere, and vested interest in making diversity on campus more than simply a “buzz word”.

In my Intro to African American Studies course, moreover, Dale Shields, a professor in the Dramatic Arts and Dance Department, was our guest lecturer for the day. In the very short span of 1.5 hours, he attempted to give us an overview of African American theater. He supplied us with a reading that-among other things-discussed a conflict between August Wilson, a Pulitzer winning black playwright, and Robert Brustein, the artistic director of the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass. The conflict between the two, according to the article, is that Wilson believes that “black theater, like the black experience, is unique and distinct, and ‘we cannot allow others to have authority over our cultural and spiritual products.’” Brustein, in contrast, asserts “that ‘theater works best as a unifying rather than a segregating medium.’ ” I think that both of these opinions are important in understanding why many white students are too intimidated to attend predominantly black performances on campus.

Although the issue of appropriation, or “who gets to talk about what,” is a legitimate one, I’d also like to point out that, from my perspective, Brustein’s statement is lacking a fundamental understanding of what it means-or rather should mean-to be inclusive. All aspects of American culture-from- should include a diverse and heterogeneous understanding of different cultures. Eleventh grade American history should have fostered in us an awareness that different types of people have contributed in important ways to the inception of this country, rather than the cognizance of an unrepresentative past that rejects conformist notions of history if they are not discussed in the month deemed appropriate. Therefore, having black productions that allow black actors the flexibility to discuss black issues, is, in reality, not something that should be viewed as “segregationist,” but rather as a necessary part of educating American society as whole.

With this in mind, I would like to invite every student at Macalester who is interested in this play to take an active role in the talkback that will follow this production. In her artistic statement, Lisa Jones’ writes, “ ‘Combination Skin’ is an exploration of the tragic mulatto archetype, as brought to us by fiction and film. It’s also a send-up of assimilation and the sugar plums of ‘crossover’ success offered to black artists in the eighties. The play began to take shape for me with one vivid image. After I left London, I traveled in France for a bit. In a little town near Nice, I came across a bookshop selling a collection of photographs of Michael Jackson. The cover photo showed Michael in closeup, his eyes airbrushed blue. For 1984 this was a new image, disturbing and provocative.”

“The play reads to me, in retrospect, like an exorcism. I felt I had to do battle with the mighty caricature of the tragic mulatto before I could clear a space in the world for myself as a black woman of mixed-parentage-quite a normal human being I think, and not an anomaly. The characters aren’t meant to be flesh-and-blood people, they’re symbols, ideas. The real drama is in the language. There’s a war of representations happening on stage, and though one person gets the booty, no one really wins.”

If this blurb sparks your interest, please join us on Sunday. This play is engaging and hilarious, and will initiate a very interesting discussion during the talkback (panel members will include Associate Dean of Students Joi Lewis, Professors Michelle Wright, Beth Cleary, and Wang Ping and hopefully, others). I hope that non-students of color who are interested attend the performance and expel notions of intimidation and feelings of “I don’t think that’s meant for me …” that hang over their heads. Yes, white Macalester student, you might squirm a little in your seat. And yes, white Macalester student, you might not understand all of the cultural allusions in the work. But hey, 80 percent of activities are not deemed for me or for black women either, but if I let that stop me from attending things and assumed them to be out of my cultural or intellectual realm … well, let’s just say, I wouldn’t get out much.