POP CULTURE REFERENCES/GENERAL PHRASES SCENE 1

Pop Culture References

OJ Simpson
In 1994 OJ was charged for the deaths of his ex-wife and her male friend outside of her house. In trial, he was acquitted of all charges and found not guilty by the help of his attorneys. This event caused the most racial separation in the country since the 60's. Most African Americans that Justice had been served by the "not guilty" verdict than most whites. 


Rodney King


Rodney King was pulled over on the highway with high levels of alcohol and marijuana in his system. After a high speed chase, 8 officers swarmed his car and after resisting for minutes King finally got out of his car when he was tazed twice. He reached for his back pocket unarmed and the police used the method "swarming", where they all used physical extreme force to tackle him to the ground. He received 30 blows to the body with batons and 6 kicks to the upper body area. After being tied and dragged to the ambulance, he suffered numerous broken bones, black eyes and missing teeth. The event was caught on tape and when shown to the world, sparked the LA Riots of 1992 when the nation discovered that the 8 officers were all found not guilty to the beating of Rodney King in court. 


Malcolm X
Malcolm Little grew up heavily involved in a life of crime. He participated in drug dealing, armed robbery and when caught received a sentence of 10 years at twenty years old for burglary. In prison he developed an interest in Islam and became "saved". When released during the Civil Rights Movement Malcolm changed his last name from Little to X and declared non-violence was the philosophy of a fool until his pilgrimage to Mecca when he realized everyone deserved love and was a children on Allah. He encouraged blacks and whites to end racism.


Dr. King
Encouraged non-violent thoughts to end segregation; as a pastor he believed in loving your neighbors and enemies as you love yourself. His assassination led to race riots throughout the country. There is a conspiracy that his murderer, James Earl Ray may have been hired by a jealous husband who was angered that his wife allegedly slept with and bore a child of King's. 

It's very important for Henry to go through this list at the very beginning of the play because it already gets the audience thinking. Some of the audience was alive when these events happened or were taught about these events in school. What were our reactions when we first heard of these events? Would the audience think that OJ was guilty or innocent? Was Dr. King truly a saint even though he had marital problems? Would the audience be racially divided already in the first two minutes?

Phrases Scene I

"Simon Legree and Topsy"
Characters from Uncle Tom's Cabin (changed the American view of Slavery).Simon Legree is Tom's last master; villain of the story, pure evil and inhumanely cruel. Devoted himself to evil without any concrete reasons. Cares about money and dominating people. Topsy, the complete opposite is a clever little girl raised without morals. 
"The white man ripped off my dress"- Topsy= back girl- innocent and victim; Simon= white guy-pure evil

"On Dead Ground, Fight"
Sun Tzu, a Chinese military general wrote The Art of Military Strategy. The phrase implies confronting the enemy or other side with the advantage, but do not explain the danger.

"Nigger Bitch"
a phrase typically describing a white girl having sexual relations with a black man, the situation can be reversed. 

"Give them a hook upon which to hang their bad judgement"
Even though they are screwed either way, let's let them think they're making the best choice. 

"Regressed to the Savage" 
Returning back to the primal state of being (starting from the ground up) 

"Exercise in metaphysics/ alley fight"
Alley fights are rare, spontaneous and majority of the time unfair and dirty and metaphysics is the traditional branch of philosophy that explains the fundamental nature of being- it answers 2 questions: What is ultimately there? What is it like?

LEGAL TERMS SCENE 1

Here are some important legal terms to know especially for Jack, Susan and Henry's characters...

Furtive-attempting to avoid notice of attention, typically because of guilt or a belief that discovery would lead to trouble; secretive.
Contrition- the state of feeling remorseful
Reticence- wanting to avoid communication and not wanting to offer anymore info than necessary, "remaining silent", "reserved". 
Deniability- the ability to deny something especially on the basis of being officially uninformed.
Addendum- an item of additional material to a completed written document (change or explanation in a contract or negotiation)
Indictment- a formal change or accusation of a serious crime
Attorney of Record-an attorney who has signed pleadings or other forms on behalf of a client or approached in court/ remains the Attorney of Record until case is closed or substitute replaces him/her.
Plea- a formal statement stating guilt or innocence
Disarray- disorganization, chaos, confusion.
Client Intake Forms- Information form of past and present; general info from client.

TAKE ON THE TRIAL

When To Take On The Trial

• If an individual makes an accusation of rape, law enforcement officers may investigate the concern. This can lead to the person accused of rape being arrested. It depends on the circumstances of the situation as to whether the investigation leads to the arrest of the individual accused of rape. 
• The definition of rape varies between states. In some states, rape is known as “sexual assault” or “sexual battery.” In many states, the definition of rape includes forced sexual contact between both people of opposite sexes as well as people of the same sex. Many states will also consider consensual sexual contact involving a child rape. This type of offense is commonly known as “statutory rape.” Rape typically carries a penalty of prison time and heavy fines. In some situations, it may require registration as a sex offender
• Law enforcement officers are more likely to develop probable cause to arrest if they observe any of the following things
• At the scene, the alleged victim is extremely distraught. The alleged victim may be crying, hysterical, or undergoing an anxiety attack.

1. Audio (911) or video recording alleged victim sounding as if they are in great distress. 
2. The alleged victim tells the story the same way every time they are approached by different people.
3. Victim’s clothing is torn.
4. Victim appears to have been physically attacked(noticeable bruising)
5. Physical evidence of a struggle in a location. 
6. There is a witness or witnesses present who back up the story of the alleged victim.
7. Victim appears to be young, vulnerable, or both.  
8. The alleged attacker admits to attacking the alleged victim.
9. If the alleged attacker gave a statement, their statement is inconsistent.
10. Law enforcement officers are less likely to develop probable cause to arrest the alleged attacker if they observe any of the following things.
11. The alleged victim takes back their story. This can backfire if the alleged victim seems fearful of the alleged attacker.
12. The alleged victim tells their story a different way every time they are approached. They also tell their story differently to different people.
13. The alleged victim indicates that any part of their story or all of it might be false.
14. The alleged victim is intoxicated. The degree of their intoxication is relevant as to whether they appear to be telling the truth, can distinguish fantasy and reality, and seem motivated for an unrelated emotional reason. 
15. The alleged victim tries to physically harm the alleged attacker in front of law enforcement officers.
16. The alleged victim indicates that he or she is engaged in a heated legal battle about other matters with the alleged attacker.
17. The alleged victim indicates that they called law enforcement officers to get revenge on the alleged attacker for an unrelated matter.
18. There is a witness or witnesses present who back up the story of the alleged attacker. This is especially true if the witness appears to be an uninterested party.
19. If the accused attacker gave a statement, their statement is consistent. 

• Often law enforcement officers arrest either or both the alleged attacker and victim at the scene. They want to separate them from each other and other parties, such as minor children. It is not always clear what has happened. Confusion can be heightened by the use of alcohol or other intoxicating substances. In some situations, law enforcement officers may arrest parties without having thoroughly investigated every detail.
• There is a good reason for this. In order to arrest a party, all law enforcement officers need to demonstrate is the existence of probable cause. A law enforcement officer does not need to know everything. The goal of law enforcement officers is not to find out who is right or wrong. Law enforcement officers have the job of preventing harm to all parties, including themselves.
• In many cases, the District Attorney will drop a rape charge if they think they cannot prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt. D.A.'s sometimes use two tools to determine whether they should prosecute a rape case. These are a polygraph, or lie detector, test, and a sexual assault nurse examination (SANE). A SANE is an examination of an alleged victim's body and clothing by a specially trained nurse. In a SANE, the nurse particularly looks at the alleged victim's genitalia for evidence consistent with forcible entry, such as vaginal bruising. A SANE collects evidence such as semen and hair samples.
• Generally, state and federal courts disallow the results of polygraph tests to be admissible as evidence in a criminal case. A SANE is usually always admissible as evidence in a criminal case. The exception is if the results appear to have been faulty or tampered with. If a SANE was performed in your case, insist that the evidence collected be tested for accuracy. If the evidence appears to have been tampered with, speak to your attorney about possible “chain of custody” issues. This topic concerns a misplacement of the evidence or wrongful access to it by an unauthorized party.

THE EEOC

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission formed July 2, 1965, is a federal law enforcement agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination. They investigate discrimination complaints based on someone's race, color, national origen, religion, sex, age, disabiltiy and genetic information. 

Race/Color Discrimination & Work Situations-

Race/Color Discrimination

• Race discrimination involves treating someone (an applicant or employee) unfavorably because he/she is of a certain race or because of personal characteristics associated with race (such as hair texture, skin color, or certain facial features). Color discrimination involves treating someone unfavorably because of skin color complexion.

• Race/color discrimination also can involve treating someone unfavorably because the person is married to (or associated with) a person of a certain race or color or because of a person’s connection with a race-based organization or group, or an organization or group that is generally associated with people of a certain color. Discrimination can occur when the victim and the person who inflicted the discrimination are the same race or color.

• The law forbids discrimination when it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, and any other term or condition of employment.

• It is unlawful to harass a person because of that person’s race or color. Harassment can include, for example, racial slurs, offensive or derogatory remarks about a person's race or color, or the display of racially-offensive symbols. Although the law doesn’t prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim being fired or demoted).

• An employment policy or practice that applies to everyone, regardless of race or color, can be illegal if it has a negative impact on the employment of people of a particular race or color and is not job-related and necessary to the operation of the business. For example, a “no-beard” employment policy that applies to all workers without regard to race may still be unlawful if it is not job-related and has a negative impact on the employment of African-American men (who have a predisposition to a skin condition that causes severe shaving bumps).

• Sex discrimination involves treating someone (an applicant or employee) unfavorably because of that person's sex.

• Sex discrimination also can involve treating someone less favorably because of his or her connection with an organization or group that is generally associated with people of a certain sex.

• Discrimination against an individual because that person is transgender is discrimination because of sex in violation of Title VII.  This is also known as gender identity discrimination.  In addition, lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals may bring sex discrimination claims.  These may include, for example, allegations of sexual harassment or other kinds of sex discrimination, such as adverse actions taken because of the person's non-conformance with sex-stereotypes.

• The law forbids discrimination when it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, and any other term or condition of employment.

• It is unlawful to harass a person because of that person's sex. Harassment can include "sexual harassment" or unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature. Harassment does not have to be of a sexual nature, however, and can include offensive remarks about a person's sex. For example, it is illegal to harass a woman by making offensive comments about women in general.

• Both victim and the harasser can be either a woman or a man, and the victim and harasser can be the same sex.

• An employment policy or practice that applies to everyone, regardless of sex, can be illegal if it has a negative impact on the employment of people of a certain sex and is not job-related or necessary to the operation of the business.

SCOTTSBORO BOYS

"All NEGROES POSITIVELY IDENTIFIED BY GIRLS AND ONE WHITE BOY WHO WAS HELD PRISONER WITH PISTOL AND KNIVES WHILE NINE BLACK FIENDS COMMITTED REVOLTING CRIME."

March 25, 1931

• Alleged gang rape of two white girls by nine black teenagers on the Southern Railroad freight run from Chattanooga to Memphis.
• At trial 8 of the 9 boys are tried, convicted and sentenced to death
• The youngest Roy Wright age 13, comes at a stall between life imprisonment or the death sentence.
• NAACP supports defendants but soon backs out from case
• Ruby Bates(women of the women claimed to be raped) denying the rape all together and testifies in court.
• Defendants convictions are held and new trials begin
• All white jury every time because blacks were excluded from that power.
• Alabama Supreme Court as well as US supreme court get involved.
• All boys are transferred to new court
• The girls who were "raped"Victoria Price and Ruby Bates were prostitutes who made everything up
• All defendants were released after serving an average of 10 years

*Many months of corruption and retrial after retrial.
*The story of the Scottsboro Boys is one of the most shameful examples of injustice in our nation's history.
*A black was presumed guilty unless he could establish his innocence beyond a reasonable doubt.
*The cases show that to jurors, black lives didn't count for much.

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scottsboro/SB_acct.html

"IT WAS LIKE ALL OF US HAD BEEN RAPED"

Betty Jean Owens

• May 2, 1959- Four white men in Tallahassee, FL made a pact  to “go out and get a nigger girl” and have an “all night party.”
• They armed themselves with shotguns and switchblades and crept up behind a  parked car in a Park
• 4 students (2 black males and 2 black females)
• The men approached the car and ordered all four passengers out using a gun
• The men ordered the black males to drive off slowly leaving the 4 with the two black females
• One of the females escaped leaving the four with Betty, she was taken deep into the park and abused and raped repeatedly.
• The 3 that had escaped reached a police station and to their surprise the cops immediately went searching for her. They pulled over the car and found her gag and tied in the back seat.
• At the Jim Crow trial, Owens testified against her rapists; one defense attorney referred to her as a “(N-word) wench” in front of the all-white, all-male jury.
• The four men were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

*The life sentence was a first for the South and the trial was a civil rights watershed, helping to end the conspiracy of silence around white sexual violence against black women–a practice that was rooted in slavery.

*Had these rapists did their deed in Virginia, they likely would have faced the same fate the Martinsville Seven faced:: the death penalty.

RUBY MCCOLLUM

Ruby McCollum (August 31, 1909 – May 23, 1992),

 

• Born Ruby Jackson- wealthy, married African-American woman in Florida 

• Known for the murder of Dr. C. Leroy Adams- a white doctor in 1952 who had been elected to the state senate

• Ruby claims he had forced her to have sex and bear his child.

• McCollum was tried and convicted and sentenced to death. 

• Her case was appealed and overturned by the State Supreme Court. 

• Second trial, McCollum was examined and found mentally incompetent to stand trial.

• Committed to the state mental hospital at Chattahoochee, Florida, her attorney obtained her release under the Baker Act in 1974, as she was not considered a danger to herself or others.

*McCollum's case was considered a landmark trial in the struggle for civil rights, and instrumental in changing attitudes about the practice of "paramour rights" (the assumption that white men have a "right" to use Black women for sex regardless of whether or not they are willing, or married to someone else)*McCollum's African-American attorney, Releford McGriff, was also part of a team who was crucial in changing Florida's Jim Crow practice of selecting all-white male jurors.

AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN IN THE WORKFORCE

National Woman’s law center: 11.8 percent unemployment in June 2009

During this period of the recession, black unemployment has hit highs that haven’t been seen since the mid-80s. 

In 2000:

Number of African American women in the labor force: 8,695,0005

Women of color held 3.2% of board seats in the Fortune 500 in 2013, down from 3.3% in 2012 but up from 3.0% in 2011.

Educational Achievement

                              African American Women         

Bachelor’s degrees in 2008-200912       103,142 (6.4% of those getting BA’s)   

Master’s degrees in 2008-200913           50,292 (7.7% of those getting MA’s)     

Doctoral degrees in 2008-200914          2,950 (4.4% of those getting PhDs)       

http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/african-american-women
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/07/11/2288201/unemployment-black-women/

THINK ABOUT THIS...

• There was an average of 51,000 sexual assaults occurring in the workplace within a 4 year time span. 

• One out of every six American women have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime (14.8% completed rape; 2.8% attempted rape).
• A total of 17.7 million women have been victims of these crimes.
• In 2002, seven out of every eight rape victims were female.
• Lifetime rate of rape/attempted rape (women):

                      All: 17.6% (approx. 1 in 5)

                      White: 17.7%

                      Black: 18.8%

                     Asian.Pacific Islander: 6.8%

                     Am. Indian/Alaskan: 34.1%

                     Mixed Race: 24.4%

• Blacks are about 10% more likely to be attacked than whites.
• Approximately 66% of rape victims know their attacker
• Approximately 48% of victims are raped by a friend or acquaintance; 30% by a stranger; 16% by an intimate; 2% by another relative; and in 4% of cases the relationship is unknown.
• The average age of rapists at arrest is 31. 
• Fifty-two percent are white; twenty-two percent of imprisoned rapists report that they are married.

WE CAN'T STOP.

"We Can't Stop Talking About Race In America"  by David Mamet

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/theater/13mame.html?_r=0

"All drama is about lies. When the lie is exposed, the play is over."

"Race, like sex, is a subject on which it is near impossible to tell the truth. In each, desire, self-interest and self-image make the truth inconvenient to share not only with strangers (who may, legitimately or not, be viewed as opponents) but also with members of one’s own group, and, indeed, with oneself."

MAMET SPEAK

Characteristics:
Street-smart and edgy dialogue
Profanity is very relevant
Clipped dialogue
One-liners
Poetic
Streetwise slang

"The people who speak that way tell the truth. They don't institutionalize thought."

• Elements of Mamet's style include minimalism and a lack of stage directions
• Mamet's plays often deal with the decline of morality in a world which has become an emotional and spiritual wasteland.
• Themes explore a desperate, obsessed landscape that is deeply American.
• Common theme in plays is "the potentially destructive force of the American Dream"

Headstrong male characters

Some say Mamet's female characters are nothing more than shallow foils for his misogynistic males.

http://www.theatredatabase.com/20th_century/david_mamet_001.html

http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc31.html

MAMET'S INFLUENCES ON RACE

Slavery: Black woman were looked at as objects and property, nothing more.

Fugitive Slave Law

Emancipation Proclamation: Abraham Lincoln emancipated all black slaves in states still engaged in rebellion against the union.
Dred Scott decision

14th Amendment-addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws.

*Section 1 of 4: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Voting Rights Act

The internment of the Japanese- Japanese Americans were forced out of their homes into camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor during WWII
Kansas-Nebraska Act

Busing-assigning and transporting students to schools in a way to redress prior racial segregation of schools, or to overcome the effects of residential segregation on local school demographics (most prominent in Brown v. Board of Education)   

Missouri Compromise

Affirmative action - Providing special opportunities or favor one group over another

2008 election

DAVID MAMET BIOGRAPHY

David Alan Mamet was born November 30, 1947 (currently 66) in Chicago, IL to parents, Lenore June , a teacher, and Bernard Mamet, an attorney. 
Grew up Jewish

• "As a Jew, I will relate that there is nothing a non-Jew can say to a Jew on the subject of Jewishness that is not patronizing, upsetting or simply wrong. I assume that the same holds true among African-Americans.”

-Mother and Father divorced when he was 11 
-Moved to the suburbs with his mother and her new husband (who was a former colleague of his fathers)
-Turmoiled Childhood: suffered emotional abuse and neglect from parents "There was a lot of violence, but the greatest violence was emotional. It was emotional terrorism" -Lynn Margaret (sister)

*He is a screenwriter and playwright and director
*Mamet studied at Vermont's Goddard College and the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre in New York
*Mamet is a founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company.

*Mamet was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2002

*He has won a Pulitzer Prize and has receive numerous Tony nominations. 

*Received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for Grand Master of American Theater in 2010. 
*Founded the St. Nicholas Theatre Co. in Chicago

Politics:

• Since May 2005 he has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post, drawing satirical cartoons with themes including political strife in Israel.
• Wrote an article in 2008, "Why I Am No Longer a Brain-Dead Liberal" switching his views from liberalism to conservatism.
• Very public embrace of 'right-wing politics'(in favor of centralizing political power in the hands of the leaders of the government)

He insists government cannot change human nature: "Those of us in show-business spend our lives trying to understand, subvert and predict the actions of the audience, It cannot be done." 

"Thomas Jefferson was an adulterer, so was every president, most likely, thats why men get into politics; it gives them power. "

• Rather than government, he looks to "community" for the survival of civilization: "Our task in life is not to guess which lever to pull, but to learn to determine, in the wild, as it were, how to support ourselves."

RACE ON BROADWAY

David Alan Grier: Henry Brown (nominated for a tony award for best performance by a featured actor in a play)

Richard Thomas: Charles Strickland

James Spader: Jack Lawson (Broadway debut)

Kerry Washington: Susan (Broadway debut)
 

*Premiere: December 6, 2009 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre; closed August 21, 2010 (297 performances)

*Crowd for the premiere was predominantly white

*Directed by Mamet himself

*First new play to recoup on Broadway in the 2009-2010 season

The show received mixed reviews:

Ben Brantley, from The New York Times, wrote: "Though the first act of 'Race' is similarly propelled by barbed one-liners, its second act offers reassuring evidence of Mr. Mamet’s scalpel-edged intelligence. And the issues it raises, particularly on the ethnic varieties of shame and the universal nature of guilt, should offer ample nutrition for many a post-theater dinner conversation.... Yet despite the tension of its subject, and an abundance of the corkscrew plot twists for which Mr. Mamet is known, “Race” lacks real dramatic tension."

Charles McNulty of The Times wrote that the play "starts strong but loses steam as the playwright approaches his tinderbox topic more like a journalist anxious to appear balanced than a theatrical provocateur wanting to get beneath all the claptrap." He added: "Sure, the profanity rips like only Mamet can rip it, but his ideas lack their usual polemical bite and there’s something tentative about the overall vision."

Elisabeth Vincentelli of The New York Post took one of the harshest stances, writing that "the most stunning thing about the David Mamet play that opened last night is how clunky it is." She noted that "the show's nominally about race, but the elephant in the room is gender... If Hillary Clinton had been elected, would we be watching 'Sex' instead?"

WELCOME

Welcome cast and crew to Georgia Southern's Production of Race by David Mamet.  I am your dramaturg, Teundras Oaks. On this blog will be all of the information about the world of the play. If you have any questions, comments or concerns please post them up on the blog or see me and person and I will answer them all as soon as possible. Can't wait to get started with you all!