Looking forward to seeing this soon.

Also, just want to add that Kiley has been extra busy on Slog lately re: theatre. I don't remember him ever posting this much or this often. And I love it. Thanks, and please keep it up! (though I know it helps when the theatre people give you plenty to talk about, and not much you can do when they don't.)

If you can't make the play, there is also the movie "Lost Boundaries" (1949), based on the true story of Dr. Albert Chandler Johnston.

"Passing" is a deep phenomenon. In the 1880s it became fashionable for white Americans to speak of having a "Cherokee" ancestor, politely ignorig the fact that the Cherokee were one of the least exogamous tribes. If Grandma told you that you have a Cherokee ancestor, chances are about 10 to 1 that "Cherokee" means "Black". That's why all the states that had definitions of "race" in their laws (most Midwest states, and all Southern states) Changed the definition between 1910 and 1920. If they had not, the 1920 census would have shown America to be a majority Black country.

Yet another story that wants to make mixed race people feel guilty and hate themselves.
Yes, passing as white is denying one's heritage...but so is trying to pass as black. I know a black and Japanese guy who would be beat up by black kids when he was in school because he refused to say he was anything but black and Japanese.
Just another attempt to make mixed people hate themselves, like biracial president Obama who hates his white side and has talked about wanting to expunge his white blood in his first book.
But then again, what would I expect from the People's Republic of Seattle?

@4

That's a sad story.

@4:

Thanks for those deep insights into a play you haven't actually seen and know absolutely nothing about, except for what other people have told you.

But then, that seems to be how you form most of your opinions...

@8
I'm half white, so I think I know something about this subject matter. As for the play, I admit I haven't seen it, but I've never seen "The Birth of a Nation" either. Should I hold my judgement on that one as well? Based on what the article says, this seems like another story about the "deranged tragic mulatto".
So, how can I know "absolutely nothing about this play" if I just read the synopsis and review? But it's my logic that's in question...

8@collectiveism_sucks

I'll admit that a Seattle theatre putting on a play with the express message that mixed-race people should hate themselves would be daring. How likely is it that that is the case here?

Your summation is broad and careless. You justify this with reference to your heritage. You are not so much illogical but willfully blind.

@10
The gist of this play, from what the article says, is about a mixed girl pretending to be white and she's essentially made to feel bad by the blacks around her.
From every other example of this "tragic mulatto" crap I've seen, the mixed race person is turned into the bad guy or girl. If this story end with her realizing she's both black and something else, I'd apologize. But it appears from the review this is one of those "you're just black and nothing else!" things I can't stand.
The one drop rule was invented by racist whites and it should be abandoned today. That, and it makes no sense: we all came out of Africa, so if the one drop rule is valid, we're all black!

11@collectivism_sucks

"Made to feel bad by the blacks around her"

No, not the "blacks around her" - her family. The family she denies, sacrificing her relationship with all of them, to pursue her marriage.

Do you think those actions had any bearing towards her relationship with her family? Or was her racist family always hateful towards the mixed-race children?

@9:

Yes, as a matter of fact, you SHOULD withhold your judgement on "Birth of a Nation", precisely because you haven't seen it, and what little you actually do know about it is only what other people have told you. Go see it for yourself, then judge-away to your heart's content, but until you actually DO, your criticism of that particular work isn't worth squat, because it's not YOUR criticism, it's just you parroting somebody else's criticism.

And for whatever it's worth, the playwright, Rachel Atkins, comes from a mixed race family, so I suspect she knows just as much about this subject as you claim to do. But here's the crazy part: two people can share very similar backgrounds and yet have completely different experiences nevertheless; your experience is YOUR experience, not anyone else's. Seeing this story through the eyes of multiple characters over several generations, each with their own unique perspective, is the entire POINT of this play.

But hey, you clearly know lots and lots about things you've never seen or heard, so feel free to keep throwing those second or third-hand critiques around - they're worth about the same as the electrons it takes you to regurgitate them.