Black History Month organizers racked their brains to create discussions and roundtables on interesting topics like entrepreneurial innovation in black communities or black women and power.
Unfortunately for them, it’s a puppet that gets all the attention.
This puppet described as “grotesque” by his detractors appears in the show Blackbeard’s Incredible Secret presented since 2009 by theater man Franck Sylvestre. This play for young audiences tells the story of a boy who discovers a mysterious box containing a 400-year-old secret. This allows him to reconstruct the story of the famous Blackbeard.
This story features a character called Max, represented by a puppet whose appearance is inspired by the performer himself. Note that Franck Sylvestre is of Martinican origin. The puppet is therefore black. And she has cartoonish features, as is often the case with puppets.
This show, which had not caused a stir until then, was scheduled in Pointe-Claire (February 26) and Beaconsfield (February 27). Alerted by citizens who felt that the puppet offered a negative image of black people, the West Island Black Community Association (WIBCA) and the Red Coalition stepped up to the plate. Faced with the outcry, the municipality of Beaconsfield decided to cancel the performance.
Representatives of these associations (Joan Lee, president of the WIBCA, Joel DeBellefeuille and Alain Babineau, respectively founding president and director of the Red Coalition) held a press conference Friday morning in Roxboro. I listened to the recording. For them, the appearance of the “doll” has the same effect as a blackface, this theatrical practice based on the creation of a make-up in order to transform an actor into a black person.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
In order: the director of the Red Coalition, Alain Babineau; West Island Black Community Association (WIBCA) President Joan Lee and Red Coalition Founding President Joel Debellefeuille. The two pressure groups wanted to denounce, on Friday, the black puppet of Franck Sylvestre’s show.
The danger in this case would be to settle the thing in two strokes of the spoon by asserting that black puppets are everywhere, especially in the famous series Master key. Admittedly, these are prettier and more refined than Max. But are we going to determine the right of existence of a puppet according to its aesthetics? This is where we interfere in the freedom of creators.
Should dolls representing people from cultural communities be banned? Should the figurines conveying stereotypes be eliminated? It is true that with her surreal shapes, Barbie is not appreciated by many women who would like her to disappear from circulation with her pink Jeep and her collection of shoes.
This seemingly banal puppet story forces us to put ourselves in the shoes of others, minorities or vulnerable groups. Imagine for a moment a puppet representing a gay man who would be a crazy Christian Lalancette finisher. What would you say? Imagine a puppet representing a blonde woman with large breasts. What would you think? Imagine a puppet representing a Quebecer with a plaid shirt and an arrow sash. How would you react?
Yes, caricature has its place everywhere in art. It all depends on how it fits into a work, how it reaches us and, above all, what message it conveys.
I am the first to defend the interests of marginalized groups and to try to understand their reality. I recently defended type parties black out because I find that insofar as everyone has access to the event in the end, there is nothing to write to his mother.
But in the case that concerns us, was it necessary to go as far as a media operation aimed at banning this show? Wouldn’t a simple alert coupled with a real nuanced discussion serve the cause better?
I did not appreciate the tone Alain Babineau had during the press conference. He first said that he was happy to see that several French media were present. “The issue of racism is touchyyou know,” he said.
Alain Babineau has repeatedly insisted on the French-speaking character of Quebec to talk about the systemic racism which, according to him, reigns here.
When a journalist asked him if he was censoring, he replied no and that it was the choice of the municipality of Beaconsfield to cancel the show. “The only censorship is the doll,” he said. Uh… if you censor a crucial element that is part of a show, you censor the show.
Alain Babineau was the sharpest of the three speakers. He answered questions by closing a door each time. “If they tell you it’s not right, that’s it ! There is no conversation to be had,” he said before adding further: “If you are here this morning trying to convince us not to say anything, you are part of the problem. »
Where I totally dropped out was when Joel DeBellefeuille mentioned the sketch of the Bye called Google Black, which denounced very clearly and with a lot of humor the difficulty for black people to live with racial profiling. He refused to acknowledge that it was a whistleblower and added that it couldn’t be laughed at. “Someone told me that in Quebec humor is different,” added Alain Babineau. It’s not funny! When are you people going to get it? »
These representatives have promised to continue their fight to eliminate this puppet from Franck Sylvestre’s show. Are they doing it the right way? I strongly doubt it.
The blind spot of this case: the show Blackbeard’s Incredible Secret has been presented since 2009. After 14 years, an eternity in our world, it might be time for the creator, whom I tried to contact without success, to consider changing the decor and accessories.