The Jamie Lloyd Company has hit back after its production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” has been the subject of what they call a “barrage of deplorable racial abuse” aimed at an unnamed cast member.
The play, directed by Jamie Lloyd (“Sunset Boulevard”), stars “Spider-Man: No Way Home” star Tom Holland as Romeo and Francesca Amewaduh-Rivers (“Sex Education”) as Juliet.
On Friday, the Jamie Lloyd Company issued a statement, saying: “Following the announcement of our ‘Romeo & Juliet’ cast, there has been a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online directed towards a member of our company. This must stop.”
It adds up to me. It doesn’t matter which cast member it is; it’s deplorable regardless.
It also doesn’t matter what kind of abuse it is, all abuse is deplorable regardless.
But they made a point of saying it was racial abuse. And they also made a point of not naming the one being abused, which is basically unheard of in an article like this.
Come on. It’s weird.
Naming abuse victims enables further abuse.
Not naming them was the correct thing to do, unless it is your goal to get them abused even more.
I’m not talking about whether you should or shouldn’t, just noticing that every single other time there’s a situation like this, the victim IS named. This is definitely a pretty unique circumstance.
But the point stands–if indeed their aim was to keep attention off the abused, why even put out a public statement about it at all, given the fact that this cast has a headlining member that is very conspicuously of a different race than what the average schmoe would expect? Isn’t that antithetical to that goal, then?
‘We don’t want to bring any negative attention to this victim of racial abuse by naming them–this victim of racial abuse in this run of Romeo & Juliet where Juliet is played by a black woman.’
I mean, come on, lol.
So I get what you’re saying. It seems obvious who is receiving the abuse so why not just say it?
But it’s not about keeping a secret (IMO). It’s about not putting all of the attention on the one person over and over again by stating the victims name over and over again and singling them out. (If it was me, I would hate it and feel much more alone)
Instead here it’s a group being mentioned which should hopefully spread the hate out. Maybe it won’t work but nothing else really has either when this happens. And at least maybe the person will feel supported.
I’m not sure why you feel they shouldn’t have said anything though? The racism is very public so not saying something publicly would be wierd right?
Also I feel like people are forgetting that maybe the victim okayed all this and wants it to go this way?
Maybe not but I feel like you can find the reasoning behind these decisions if you try to see it from other angles.
Usage of language is important. As has been mentioned, it doesn’t repeatedly mention her name as it isn’t necessary.
So…like…you think racists are reading this article chomping at the bit to find out who is black so they can attack them but since there is no name that has kept them safe? The people who WOULD have attacked based on this article don’t bother to just google the cast?
It’s to point the attention at the abuse rather than the abused. Much like in cases which go to court, victims aren’t often explicitly named to protect them unless they volunteer to make themselves public so that others will come forward.
Why bother? Every single article I’ve seen after some quick googling, 4 out of 4, has a huge pic of Holland and Amewaduh-Rivers front and center on the page.
Even the densest racist can glean the information, it’s being handed to them, lol.
Which is why this is so confusing. Imagine one random article during all the black Ariel drama saying ‘there have been racial comments but for safety reasons we will not say against who’
Brah we know.
It didn’t say that.