Being Black and Pursuing Musical Theatre
Imagine yourself in kindergarten and having your teacher ask you “What do you want to be when you grow up”? From a young age, my answer was always different each time someone asked me about my potential career. I wanted to be a professional dancer, a hair stylist, an author, and so much more. As I grew older, I discovered a career where I could be all of these things onstage. I was twelve when I first introduced the idea of pursuing musical theatre in college to my family. My proposal was met with immediate rejection as they tried to steer me in a more ethical direction. Why were they so surprised? I started dance lessons when I was seven and vocal lessons when I was nine. I started going to musical theatre summer camps at the age of ten. Still, my proposal was met with strong opposition, which turned into deflection and at last tentative acceptance. Now that I am about to pursue musical theatre in college, I am starting to understand my family’s hesitation to my career choice. Aside from worrying about me ending up jobless after college, the root of my family’s hesitation was in their …show more content…
Being Black in America was slavery, where at its peak the population in America was 4 million slaves. It took 245 years for slavery to be abolished and even then black people were considered less than equal to their white counterparts (“Slavery In America”). Being Black in America was also The Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s, which after several assassinations awarded black people most of the same rights as white people at least on paper (“Black History Month”). As the years went on, more and more black people fought for equality, and it is because their perseverance that America is way more equal for all people. Nevertheless, America still has so much more to develop and
Imagine yourself in kindergarten and having your teacher ask you “What do you want to be when you grow up”? From a young age, my answer was always different each time someone asked me about my potential career. I wanted to be a professional dancer, a hair stylist, an author, and so much more. As I grew older, I discovered a career where I could be all of these things onstage. I was twelve when I first introduced the idea of pursuing musical theatre in college to my family. My proposal was met with immediate rejection as they tried to steer me in a more ethical direction. Why were they so surprised? I started dance lessons when I was seven and vocal lessons when I was nine. I started going to musical theatre summer camps at the age of ten. Still, my proposal was met with strong opposition, which turned into deflection and at last tentative acceptance. Now that I am about to pursue musical theatre in college, I am starting to understand my family’s hesitation to my career choice. Aside from worrying about me ending up jobless after college, the root of my family’s hesitation was in their …show more content…
Being Black in America was slavery, where at its peak the population in America was 4 million slaves. It took 245 years for slavery to be abolished and even then black people were considered less than equal to their white counterparts (“Slavery In America”). Being Black in America was also The Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s, which after several assassinations awarded black people most of the same rights as white people at least on paper (“Black History Month”). As the years went on, more and more black people fought for equality, and it is because their perseverance that America is way more equal for all people. Nevertheless, America still has so much more to develop and