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One student bemoans ‘linguistic violence’

Northwestern University students canceled a musical following backlash from some students over the use of the n-word by a character.

Campus theatre troupe Lovers & Madmen canceled the remaining two shows the first weekend of March following criticism from black students.

The Stephen Sondheim musical “Assassins,” which debuted in 1990, includes the use of the n-word by John Wilkes Booth. “The Ballad of Booth” has a line about an n-word “lover.” It is a derogatory term the character uses toward President Abraham Lincoln.

The Daily Northwestern reported:

Preceding the decision to forfeit the remaining shows, “Assassins” garnered a great deal of attention on social media after production team members uploaded a content warning to the “Assassins” Instagram account on Thursday….

…The L&M board uploaded the same post separately to its Instagram account before opening night and included a link in the account’s bio to a one-page document of resources related to the usage of the N-word. The document additionally offered three bullet points to explain what contextual and character development elements the use of the N-word adds to “Assassins.”

“We chose a show that contained the n-word, and we failed to engage in meaningful conversations with the Black community,” the theatre group wrote in a statement. “On Friday [February 28], the show was performed twice with the inclusion of the n-word.”

The use of the n-word is “violence,” according to a student interviewed by the Daily Northwestern.

“Putting on this play and using that word in that statement is a form of violence,” Noel Matthews said. “Whether you are complicit with it in solely a theatre sense or a non-theatrical sense, using the N-word is violent. It’s linguistic violence, and that should not be condoned by anybody.”
The “theatre community” needs to do more to confront its “anti-Blackness,” according to another student.

“I think from now on, it’s about time to start having conversations within both Northwestern, but especially within the NU theatre community, about anti-Blackness and what it has done to the Black students in the theatre community, Black students in the artist community,” Elebetel Negusse told the student newspaper.

One member of the group said it could not change the lyrics without violating its copyright agreement with Music Theatre International, the student newspaper reported.

The cancellation drew criticism from Northwestern University law Professor Andrew Koppelman who called it “performative virtue-signaling.”

“After this sorry episode, one wonders whether the theater program at Northwestern will ever dare again to portray racism on the stage,” he wrote in The Hill. “It will likely turn, instead, to safer topics. One of the central ways in which oppression maintains itself is by keeping people thinking about something else.”

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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: An actor portraying John Wilkes Booth in the musical “Assassins.” Signature Theatre/YouTube

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