N*W*C*

N*gger, Ch*nk, Wetb*ck.

Terms you've never seen before in this journal, even with an asterisk. I don't use terms like that and have been adamant at not allowing such terms or any derogatory term for any group of people. Sometimes adamant. I try to have enough courage to speak up and point out when someone uses an offensive term.

Yet, tonight I went to a show called "N*gger, Wetb*ck, Ch*nk," written and performed by (surprise, surprise), an African American man, a Filipino man, and a Latino from Honduras. The men were best friends while attending UCLA and, in the drama program, noticed that they were not getting cast for parts where directors saw only Caucasians in the roles, so they decided to write their own play about diversity and, by using the pejoratives used as negative labels for different ethnicities, take away the power that those words have to hurt them.

Despite the lofty description, this is a very funny play where you hear those three terms used so often that by the end of the play, they no longer shock. You have also taken the journey of "self" with the three men. You have seen how ludicrous stereotypes are (the African American man, for example, had to learn "how to be black" when he moved from Los Angeles to Georgia in high school. He had to learn how to "walk Black" and "talk Black" in order to fit in with the other African Americans in his school).

It's a very thought-provoking play that ultimately is all about "race" -- the human race.