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'Dear White People' Actor Calls Out Broadway's Racism In Powerful Video About The 'Horrific Treatment' He's Experienced

'Dear White People' Actor Calls Out Broadway's Racism In Powerful Video About The 'Horrific Treatment' He's Experienced
Photo by Gary Gershoff/Getty Images

This has no doubt been an exhausting and incredibly difficult week for people of color across the country.

The protests over George Floyd will not be stopping any time soon. Many people of color are making their experiences with racism known.

Griffin Matthews, an actor, writer and producer from the acclaimed Netflix series Dear White People unapologetically added Broadway to the national conversation in a seven minute long video recalling his experiences with racism in the entertainment industry.

Matthews' video pulls from Amy Cooper, the white, liberal woman who unnecessarily called police on Christian Cooper in Central Park while he was birdwatching, to create a strong metaphor for a black person's experience every single day in the throes of a Broadway career.

Matthews went through several pieces of racist mistreatment and racist events he was witness to over the years, such as seeing a major White director comment on an actress's Blackness level, a White producer saying "slavery is over, no one wants to hear about that" and being forced to edit his experience as told through an off-broadway piece to make a White producer more comfortable.

He concludes that Broadway will somehow make stars of all its Amy Coopers, but that he may never make it to Broadway for speaking out about the racism he's been on the receiving end of.

Other Broadway actors were quick to come and show their support.





Folks are also expressing fear and the need to protect actors like Griffin Matthews and John Boyega, who were calling out anti-Blackness in their industries, from being disinvited to the table for work following speaking out on their experiences.





The #BroadwayIsRacist hashtag is also gaining quite a bit of traction.



As the curtain continues to be drawn back on American institutions, we will see how deep the need for complete and total restructuring of the system is.