(1997, March). Black Actor Ignores Threats, Plays Jesus. Newark, NJ.

OVERVIEW

(Download Black Actor Plays Jesus as a PDF)

There were some serious reactions to Desi Arnaz Giles, a black actor, playing the part of Jesus in a passion play this year at the Park Theater Performing Arts Center

. Passion plays center on the last days in the life of Jesus Christ.

According to artistic director Eric Hafen, who cast Giles:

The first call I got, the woman asked me, ‘When is the white actor playing because I don’t want to see the black thing.’

Two groups canceled their reservations and rescheduled for a day when the alternate, white actor would be playing the part. There were even threats on Gile’s life:

I have led a complete life. Should somebody clip me during a performance, don’t cry for me, just rejoice because I am ready to go home.

Giles is also playing the devil in a Plainfield, New Jersey musical. About this irony, the actor quipped:

We’ll see how many people object to a black man playing him.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. If racism can be divided into individual prejudice (overt and covert) and institutional discrimination (overt and covert), what kind of racism is this?
2. Would you expect racism to be decreasing or increasing at the end of the 20th century? Which do you think is happening? Why is there disagreement about this?
3. If racism is only a matter of ignorance, how do you explain the holocaust in one of the most educated countries in the world and the above reactions from people who cherish the "high arts?"
4. How would you respond to someone who objected to a black Jesus?
5. Comment or discuss W.E.B. Du Bois’s opening lines in The Souls of Black Folks where he asserts that the color line is the issue of the American 20th century.
6. Do you think this brief article is worthy of a place in the YouthWorkers’ Encyclopedia

1. ? What should be done with this and other articles on this topic?

IMPLICATIONS

1. Racism is a nagging problem and a continuing weakness in American society.
2. Adult examples and teaching have a great deal to do with our possibilities of a "color-blind" society in the twenty-first century.
3.  

1. Children and young people have a powerful opportunity to model for adults reconciliation and unity in their diversity.

Dean Borgman cCYS