Member since: May 5, 2012
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I remember coming home to Tulsa in 1989 to do an Artist in Residency program at my high school. Without even thinking, I cast a black boy and a white girl opposite each other in the romantic leads in You Can't Take it With You and when I mentioned it in the teacher's lounge there was an uncomfortable silence I didn't even understand at first. Then...it dawned on me, as I looked at all the guilty, unhappy faces around the room. I just couldn't believe the racism was still that bad in Tulsa. In 1989! After I raised a fuss they let the casting stand and the play was great! I did, however, tell the kids as I didn't let the screen door hit my ass on the way out..."Get out if you can as soon as you can. If you can't, you've got to keep fighting this fight. Most of the rest of the country has jumped this hurdle, if not completely,at least way higher than T-Town. I'm going back to the real world." I love the city of Tulsa, and I look back with fondness on growing up there in the '70s, but it's old calcified stuff like this that makes Tulsa a place to be from and not a place to live. The idea of shifting the name to MLK as the street passes into North Tulsa just makes Tulsa look like Sydney Poitier should be walking all bad ass down the center of Downtown to shake things up...but this isn't 1967 and it's not The Heat of the Night...get with the 21st Century Tulsa. It's embarrassing to keep apologizing for you!
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