With acts of tolerance and impact, nonprofit arts organizations in America could set the anti-competitive tone for everyone. But, generally, they don’t.
There are a lot of closets out there with a lot of people in them.
And, unsurprisingly, there are a lot of people who would like those people to stay just where they are, for numerous reasons.
LGBT folx have been famous for closets. Even the Ls, the Gs, the Bs, and the Ts are dealing with closets that protect them from each other. Today in America, there are still millions of people who would very much like those who have come out of said closet to please, if you don’t mind, go back in.
Black people have a term for their version of “the closet.” For those with a lighter tone to their skin (Lena Horne had base makeup created for her by Max Factor called “Light Egyptian”) it’s called “passing.”
Or, if the Black person has more and richer melanin than the average white person, it’s called “appeasing,” otherwise known as “trying not to get killed.” Although, according to the horrendous video shown recently about the late Tyre Nichols, that tactic is difficult to manage.
Jews like me have a “closet.” It’s called “assimilating,” otherwise known as “trying not to get killed.” Name changes are a part of that. As the grandson of Yoshef Hershevitz and Chave Sendermann, I can see why they didn’t particularly want to place targets on his back. So, they became Joe and Eva Harrison.
The Jewish closet is a little different. I have had more than one Black person tell me, “at least you can pass,” which I take to mean that, at first glance, I might appear to be “one of them,” something that a Black person (or other obviously non-white people) cannot do. But it also seems to imply that I could just pretend I’m not a Jew at will and head into a closet, even though the culture goes back thousands of years…a culture that my ancestors (not so distant ones) were killed for.
In 2023, would you tell any out lesbian to go back into the closet and pretend she preferred sex with men? Do you understand how difficult it was for her to reveal that core truth about herself to a hostile world? Hey, but at least she can pass, right?
Would you tell a light-skinned Black man with freckles to go back into the closet, or at least to pretend he was white? Do you understand the difficulties that man has had to endure and, choosing not to live a lie, continues to endure? Hey, but at least he can pass, right?
But, somehow, it’s okay to tell a Jew to hide. Because we’re used to hiding. Ask Anne Frank.
Then there are those say a particular phrase that any other ridiculed group of people would violently march against. “You know, the Jews, they brought it on themselves.” Try to replace “the Jews” with any other group of people without sounding like a bigot. You can’t.
And yet people do.
Transgender Americans face the same blame game. No one, evidently, was ever gender dysphoric until this generation of extremely brave souls chose to live a truer life. And they’re getting killed for it on a regular basis. Because: “You know, transgender people, they brought it on themselves.”
Equal opportunity hatred abounds. I’ve heard some people say that their particular group had it the worst, and so they deserve more equity than any other group. (More equity? Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?) Rather than wasting our time discussing the plights of all the various groups that face discrimination, murder, suicide, shaming, and good-old-fashioned bigoted hate, we should only talk about the plight of Black folks. Or Jewish folks. Or AAPI folks. Or LGBT folks. Or Indigenous folks. Or Latinx folks. Or poor folks.
It’s not a contest. And just guess who benefits when all these groups of folks turn against each other like that.
One thing that nonprofit arts organizations can do in the face of all this is to remember that they are charities first who happen to use the arts to solve or mitigate a community problem. One major community problem—in most communities—is the continuation of the closet.
Nonprofit arts organizations cannot be successful if they’re trying to shove people back into closets.
The backlash from DEI programming is real. Of course it’s real. Privilege, so often unearned, has put artists at the forefront of the movement, whether they like it or not. The discourse is cringeworthy, to say the least.
One dance company’s leader (white male, 47) was quoted that after the George Floyd murder, things changed for his company. “All of a sudden, it felt like you had to make your practices, discussion, everything, not only about race but about diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
As any teenager would say, “Yeah. Duh.”
More telling was this quote from an email he sent to his employees. “[This company] is not a political organization,” he wrote. “Our mission is great dance. It is not our prerogative to represent each other politically.”
If your mission is great dance, please close up shop or become a for-profit dance company, where you can do whatever your “artistic vision” takes you. In 2023, it is no longer acceptable for a charitable organization to do as it pleases without any positive, measurable impact in its community.
And it’s not as if that particular leader is alone. There are lots of white, Anglo-Saxon, Christian folks who feel they’re being discriminated against. In the arts, in your friendly neighborhood insurrections, on the streets of Charlottesville…everywhere in America. And it’s not they’re wrong to feel that way—many wouldn’t want anyone to feel that way. But part of the collateral damage of arts organizations choosing not to quantifiably assist their particular communities comes in the form of the Lost Privilege Blues, a malady of those who didn’t have to deal with closets, or have had others before them blast out the closet doors before them.
Just don’t look to those who are still dealing with closets to solve that condition.
Based in Kirkland, Washington, Alan Harrison is a writer and speaker specializing in nonprofit organizations, strategy, the arts, and life politics. His columns appear regularly in major publications. Contact him directly at alan@501c3.guru.
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Alan is always looking for good opportunities to write and consult for nonprofits that need a hand. And, of course, that elusive Perfect Opportunity™.
BIG NEWS: Alan’s new book, “Scene Change: Why Today’s Nonprofit Arts Organizations Have to Stop Producing Art and Start Producing Impact” will be published in January. CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER IN THE UNITED STATES. If you live in the UK, CLICK HERE.
Alan will be speaking on May 19 at the Washington State Nonprofit Conference at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Tacoma, WA. The publisher has pre-printed a LIMITED NUMBER of books so that attendees can purchased a signed copy right there at the event.
A few more copies may be made available for those booking conferences, reading engagements, and speaking engagements. Recruit your local bookstore, conference panel, or boardroom to get a visit from Alan. Let Alan know if you want bulk copies for your board!
Very much appreciate this blogpost.