The Jamie Lloyd Company has hit back after its production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” has been the subject of what they call a “barrage of deplorable racial abuse” aimed at an unnamed cast member.

The play, directed by Jamie Lloyd (“Sunset Boulevard”), stars “Spider-Man: No Way Home” star Tom Holland as Romeo and Francesca Amewaduh-Rivers (“Sex Education”) as Juliet.

On Friday, the Jamie Lloyd Company issued a statement, saying: “Following the announcement of our ‘Romeo & Juliet’ cast, there has been a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online directed towards a member of our company. This must stop.”

  • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I know, the “they” in my comment is the Jamie Lloyd Company. Super weird to be willing to say the nature/motivation of the abuse is racism, but then be unwilling to name which cast member it is, if it is in fact Amewaduh-Rivers.

    Something is not adding up.

    • neatchee@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      No, this is how you properly show solidarity.

      An attack against a single cast member is an attack against the entire company.

      They are saying “it doesn’t matter who they attacked. Racism against our cast member is racism against us all because we are a family that stands with a single purpose, speaks with a single voice.”

      And if it only redirects 1% of the aggression away from the intended target and towards the white cast members instead, then it is worth it.

      That’s how you be a good ally

      • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        No, this is how you properly show solidarity.

        An attack against a single cast member is an attack against the entire company.

        This would hold water if they didn’t go out of their way to say it was race-motivated abuse.

        They did, so it doesn’t.

        if it only redirects 1% of the aggression away from the intended target and towards the white cast members instead, then it is worth it.

        lmao, this sentiment is the exact opposite of solidarity, and invokes the fundamentally-racist ‘white savior’ trope, to boot.

        • neatchee@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          white savior trope

          I and other white allies literally stood in front of police with crowd control weapons when my black friends yelled ‘white shield’ during the BLM protests in Seattle but tell me more 🤣 I’m nobody’s savior but I do know how to use my privilege for the benefit of others

          This would hold water if they didn’t go out of their way to say it was race-motivated abuse.

          So the options are “don’t reference the racism at all” or “name the victim”? Fuck outta here with that shit.

          • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I and other white allies literally stood in front of police with crowd control weapons when my black friends yelled ‘white shield’ during the BLM protests in Seattle but tell me more

            Apparently, I do need to tell you more, since you clearly don’t understand that the fact that your black friends were literally verbally encouraging you, makes the above the literal opposite of “white savior”.

            So the options are “don’t reference the racism at all” or “name the victim”?

            No, the point is that those are effectively identical (since she is the only known black cast member), so why would you do one and not the other? Either do both, or neither. They also went out of their way to say there was exactly one victim. Why? Why do that, if their goal is not to clearly identify the one and only person who fits all of the criteria they put out?

            That’s weird, bottom line. If you asked me what 2 + 2 is and I was willing to tell you it was “the number that’s half of 8”, but I refused to say “4”, wouldn’t you think that was weird of me?

              • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                lol, I was perfectly clear, even gave you a simple analogy, but I guess that was just beyond you.

                Transparent move to preserve your ego by convincing yourself of my “mental gymnastics”, giving yourself an excuse for why you had no response.

        • ABCDE@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          This would hold water if they didn’t go out of their way to say it was race-motivated abuse.

          Why would they ignore what it is? I’m not sure what you’re getting at here.

      • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        They already DID highlight her! That’s my point–they put a massive spotlight on her, by both going out of their way to specify the particular type of abuse, and also going out of their way to say that one and only one cast member was receiving the abuse. They’ve directly contradicted their own ridiculous pretense of ‘not naming names’ by doing literally everything they can to clearly identify her as the victim, and then bizarrely refusing to plainly say she’s the victim.

        All of the people in this chain saying “why does she have to be named”: why aren’t any of you asking “why does the fact that it’s exactly one victim need to be specified” or “why does the fact that the online abuse was racially motivated”? None of these three DON’T act to identify the victim. You clearly don’t mind if the victim is identified since you don’t have a problem with those other two. So why are people biting my head off simply for pointing out it’s weird that they did the latter two and not the former?

        It’s like if someone asked how many of something you have, and your answer is “the amount is an odd integer between 4 and 6” instead of “5”. It’d be perfectly reasonable to ask in response “why the hell didn’t you just say 5?”

        lol

        • ABCDE@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          You are focused on entirely the wrong point. Why are you attempting to distract from the issue?

          • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            If you read an article about a guy who murdered his wife that had a timeline, and it read ‘he woke up, took a shower, ate 23 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and then he shot his wife’–would it be “distracting from the issue” to comment about the obvious bizarre element there? To comment on that is not equivalent to trivializing the murder. Weird thing sticks out, someone who noticed points it out. That’s all, it ain’t that deep.

            I’m not trying to distract from anything, holy shit. All I did was point out a strange element I identified in the article. The top level comment in this chain is mine, so you can’t even accuse me of derailing someone else’s, lol. If you don’t want to talk about this particular bit, post your own top-level comment and move on. Don’t whine at me here about it.

            • ABCDE@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              I’m the one whining after you wrote yet more paragraphs about everything but the issue? I said distracting, not derailing.