Editing Blackface (section)

==== Universities ====
In 2021, music professor [[Bright Sheng]] [[Bright Sheng#Blackface controversy (2021)|stepped down from teaching]] a [[University of Michigan]] [[musical composition]] class, where he says he had intended to show how [[Giuseppe Verdi]] adapted [[William Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[Othello]]'' into his opera ''[[Otello]]'', after showing the [[Othello (1965 British film)|1965 British movie ''Othello'']], whose actors received 4 [[38th Academy Awards|Oscar nominations]], but in which the white actor [[Laurence Olivier]] played [[Othello (character)|Othello]] in blackface, which caused controversy even at the time.<ref name=Reason2021-10-08a/><ref name=IHE2021-10-11a>{{Cite magazine|last=Flaherty|first=Colleen|date=October 11, 2021|title=Professor Not Teaching After Blackface 'Othello' Showing|url=https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2021/10/11/professor-not-teaching-after-blackface-%E2%80%98othello%E2%80%99-showing|access-date=2021-10-12|magazine=[[Inside Higher Ed]]|language=en-us|quote=}}</ref><ref name=Newsweek2021-10-09a>{{Cite magazine|last=Roche|first=Darragh|date=October 9, 2021|title=College Music Professor Steps Down After Showing Students 'Blackface' Othello|url=https://www.newsweek.com/college-music-professor-steps-down-students-blackface-othello-1637274|access-date=2021-10-11|magazine=[[Newsweek]]|language=en-us|quote=}}</ref> Sheng allegedly failed to give students any warning that the movie contained blackface, and his two subsequent apologies failed to satisfy his critics, with the wording of the second one causing further controversy.<ref name=Reason2021-10-08a/><ref name=Newsweek2021-10-09a/> There was disagreement over whether showing the blackface performance constituted racism.<ref name=Reason2021-10-08a/><ref name=WSWS2021-10-11a>{{cite web|author=International Youth and Students for Social Equality at the University of Michigan|date=October 8, 2021|title=Oppose the right-wing, racialist attack on composer Bright Sheng at University of Michigan|url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/10/11/she1-o11.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211011192144/https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/10/11/she1-o11.html |archive-date=October 11, 2021 |access-date=2021-10-12|publisher=[[World Socialist Web Site]]|language=en-us|quote=The denunciation of Olivier's performance, which he had previously given on the British stage, is particularly reactionary in that the actor was attempting to take on the timid, semi-racist approaches to the Othello character that had prevailed for a century and a half. In representing Othello as black, as an African, Olivier was rebuffing various commentators appalled at the thought of the white maiden Desdemona falling head over heels in love with a black man. As Elise Marks commented in a 2001 essay, "Olivier was one of the first light-skinned actors to play Othello in black makeup since 1814. ... In his autobiography, Olivier boasts that his black Othello was more genuine, more daring, more forceful than the 'pale'—he might almost have said 'diluted'—Othellos of his immediate predecessors."}}</ref> Evan Chambers, a professor of composition (as is Sheng), said "To show the film now, especially without substantial framing, content advisory and a focus on its inherent racism is in itself a racist act, regardless of the professor's intentions",<ref name=Reason2021-10-08a/> while David Gier, dean of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, said: "Professor Sheng's actions do not align with our School's commitment to anti-racist action, diversity, equity and inclusion"<ref name=Newsweek2021-10-09a/> But Robert Soave, a senior editor at ''[[Reason (magazine)|Reason]]'' magazine, said that the university had violated the principle of [[academic freedom]], that showing the movie was neither a racist act nor approval of racism, and that the university owed Sheng an apology for unfairly maligning him, and he compared it to Sheng's earlier experience of surviving the Chinese [[Cultural Revolution]].<ref name=Reason2021-10-08a>{{Cite magazine|last=Soave|first=Robby|date=October 8, 2021|title=Michigan Students Accuse Celebrated Music Professor of Racism for Screening Othello|url=https://reason.com/2021/10/08/bright-sheng-university-of-michigan-othello-racism/|access-date=2021-10-12|magazine=[[Reason (magazine)|Reason]]|language=en-us|quote=One of Sheng's colleagues, Evan Chambers, another professor of composition, sided with the students and accused Sheng of committing a "racist act". "To show the film now, especially without substantial framing, content advisory and a focus on its inherent racism is in itself a racist act, regardless of the professor's intentions," said Chambers. "We need to acknowledge that as a community."... It is a violation of the university's cherished principles of academic freedom to punish Sheng for the choices he makes in the classroom. Screening a racially problematic film in an educational setting is neither a racist act nor an endorsement of racism. At this point, it is Sheng who is owed an apology from the broader university community for falsely maligning him. Imagine surviving the Cultural Revolution in communist China, only to reencounter it on an American university campus in 2021.}}</ref>