This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, July 18, 2012 - Having absorbed the show on Monday night, Tuesday night was full on audience watching. I have no scientific measures or actual numbers, but visually, the crowd was smaller than Monday's. But it looked more diverse. And it was slightly more responsive. As I swatted mosquitoes and tried to hold on to the intermittent cooling effects of the rare breeze, I thought about all that humanity mashed up against each other in this heat.
When I have conversations about diversity, I often find myself asserting the concept of diversity meaning more than "taking turns." It's not enough that everyone has access or something that appeals to them - what's going to get everyone in the room at the same time? What's going to be that conduit for turning an experience or a space from an echo chamber into an opportunity to think outside our comfort zone?
In the early number "Cadillac Car," the character of Curtis lays out the American dream by way of an analogy to society's relationship to the Cadillac.
Now once upon a time the Cadillac car represented
The highest classes in America
The pure unstained WASP
They never worried about the cost, naw
Then the Cadillac car was bought by the rising Jews to show they were just as good and part of the scheme
Now we got the Cadillac taken over by our Negro brother to prove he too belongs; in the American dream
Look
I'm trying to tell you
I'm trying to tell you thus:
If the big white man can make us think we need his Cadillac to make us feel as good as him,
We can make him think he needs our music to make him feel as good as us!
So, you know, just in case you thought this was Aladdin and you were out for a night relaxing under the stars, BAM. We're 15 minutes into the show; and it's hot; and it's still light out and you are sitting in a sea of people right up next to each other who all look different from each other and maybe it's uncomfortable, but the lyrics maybe make you think. And maybe wonder what they are thinking.
And that is the beauty and the opportunity of getting everyone in the same room.