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Race and Racism in Show Boat
Kern and Hammerstein's nostalgic portrayal of a vanishing American past also made a pointed statement about racism in the American present of 1927. With its sympathetic, realistic black characters and honest portrayal of racial injustice, Show Boat challenged its mostly white audiences to examine their racial stereotypes. "The black experience, in both its triumph and its tragedy, is at the heart of the show's perception of America."

Nevertheless, from the opening curtain, Show Boat has been dogged by complaints of racial insensitivity and offensiveness. African-American reviewers of the original production complained that Queenie and Joe were stereotypical comic characters (the sassy mammy and the lazy black man ), and that Hammerstein's decision to have the black characters speak in African American Vernacular English, while justified on the grounds of authenticity, nevertheless unavoidably reinforced the stereotype that blacks were foolish and ignorant.

A particular difficulty arose from the use of the word nigger. The show originally opened with a chorus of black dock workers singing:


 * Niggers all work on the Mississippi.
 * Niggers all work while the white folks play —
 * Loadin' up boats wid de bales of cotton,
 * Gittin' no rest till de Judgement Day

Hammerstein's intention was to shock the audience out of their complacency and announce that this was a serious work. . But the word proved both too difficult for audiences to stomach and too unpleasant for performers to sing. In subsequent productions, Hammerstein changed the lyric to "colored folk," then to "darkies" and then to "Here we all work on the Mississippi." In the 1966 Lincoln Center production of the show, produced during the height of the Civil Rights struggle, this section of the opening chorus was completely omitted. The 1988 CD for EMI restored the original lyric, while the 1993 Harold Prince revival chose "colored folk".

A more general complaint made about Show Boat is that it appropriates an ethnic minority's culture, in this case black spiritual music, for the benefit of white producers and audiences. Similar accusations have been leveled against Porgy and Bess, West Side Story, and even the seemingly inoffensive Fiddler on the Roof . In his examination of race and ethnicity in American musicals, theater historian Raymond Knapp wrote "people don't like it when you do that." Knapp notes that this kind of thing had been going on long before Show Boat, and that Kern and Hammerstein were themselves aware of this issue. They even lampoon it in Show Boat, first in the Chicago scene where white producers take Magnolia's spiritual and "rag it up" for white audiences, and secondly in the number In Dahomey, which is set at the Dahomey exhibit of the 1907 Chicago World Fair. The number mocks a long-running Broadway show of 1910, also called "In Dahomey", which was based on the African dances performed at the Dahomey exhibit, and had a "cannibals dancing around the pot" quality.

Finally, Show Boat has been blamed for its failure to follow and dramatically resolve the plight of its black characters. William Henry III of Time Magazine states the case bluntly: The 1927 musical is racist. The problem is not the epithet niggers in the opening song, which was not meanly meant in the first place and which in any case has been expunged in favor of the less incendiary colored folks. Nor is it the historically accurate portrayal of blacks as mostly compliant, if resentful, field hands and laborers. The real problem is that the show follows the wrong story. It assumes that black people are inherently less interesting than whites.

Knapp offers a more cautious view. Ferber's novel, like all her work, thematically addresses the role of women in society. The black characters, while memorable and significant, are not her primary concern. In translating the novel to the stage, Hammerstein had dramatic troubles with act 2 that are well acknowledged. Although it would be satisfying to give the black characters some kind of triumph, the realities of the segregated world 1927 made such a conclusion unrealistic, and Hammerstein chose to give his black characters dignity through their principled resignation and expectation of salvation in the next life, rather than through success in this life. To many, this is unsatisfying. Paul Robeson, for example, added a note of defiance to his solo performances of Ol' Man River, changing the lyrics you get a little drunk and you lands in jail to you show a little grit and you lands in jail.

Controversy During the 1993 revival
The most major recent revival of Show Boat, Harold Prince's 1993 production, also faced the largest organized protest against the musical to date. During the production's opening stay in Toronto, members of Toronto's black community picketed the entrance to the theater, waving placards such as "SHOW BOAT SPREADS LIES AND HATE" and "SHOW BOAT = CULTURAL GENOCIDE". Prince stoutly defended his production, and the protesters faced counter-charges that many of them had never seen the show, and that some of them had made anti-Semitic remarks about the show's Jewish producers. The Prince production moved to Broadway where it faced no further protests.

Analysis
Many commentators, both black and non-black, view the show as an outdated and stereotypical commentary on race relations that portrays blacks in a negative or inferior position. Douglass K. Daniel of Kansas State University has commented that it is a "racially flawed story", and the African-Canadian writer M. Nourbese Philip claims

"The affront at the heart of Show Boat is still very alive today. It begins with the book and its negative and one-dimensional images of Black people, and continues on through the colossal and deliberate omission of the Black experience, including the pain of a people traumatized by four centuries of attempted genocide and exploitation. Not to mention the appropriation of Black music for the profit of the very people who oppressed Blacks and Africans. All this continues to offend deeply. The ol' man river of racism continues to run through the history of these productions and is very much part of this (Toronto) production. It is part of the overwhelming need of white Americans and white Canadians to convince themselves of our inferiority – that our demands don't represent a challenge to them, their privilege and their superiority."

On the other hand, supporters of the musical believe that the depictions of racism should be regarded not as stereotyping blacks but rather satirizing the common national attitudes that both held those stereotypes and reinforced them through discrimination. In other words, just as quoting an out-of-context line from a play and claiming that it is the view of the playwright is absurd and deceptive, the fact that a dramatic or literary work portrays racist attitudes and institutions does not mean that it endorses them – in the words of

The New Yorker theatre critic John Lahr, "describing racism doesn't make Show Boat racist. The production is meticulous in honoring the influence of black culture not just in the making of the nation's wealth but, through music, in the making of its modern spirit."

Broadway writers have long used the musical as a medium to call for tolerance and racial harmony, as in Finian's Rainbow and (by Hammerstein) in South Pacific. Those who attempt to understand works like Show Boat and Porgy and Bess through the eyes of their creators usually consider that the show "was a statement AGAINST racism. That was the point of Edna Ferber's novel. That was the point of the show. That's how Oscar wrote it.... I think this is about as far from racism as you can get." Perhaps the strongest argument in defense of Show Boat lies in an understanding of the socially concerned intentions, aims, and backgrounds of its authors. According to Rabbi Alan Berg, Kern and Hammerstein's score to Show Boat is "a tremendous expression of the ethics of tolerance and compassion." As Harold Prince (not Kern, to whom the quote has been mistakenly attributed) states in the original production notes to his 1993 production of the show:

"Throughout pre-production and rehearsal, I was committed to eliminate any inadvertent stereotype in the original material, dialogue which may seem 'Uncle Tom' today... However, I was determined not to rewrite history. The fact that during the 45-year period depicted in our musical there were lynchings, imprisonment, and forced labor of the blacks in the United States is irrefutable. Indeed, the United States still cannot hold its head high with regard to racism."

Oscar Hammerstein's commitment to idealizing and encouraging tolerance theatrically started with his libretto to Show Boat and can be seen clearly in his later works, many of which were set to music by Richard Rodgers. Carmen Jones is an attempt to present a modern version of the classic French opera through the experiences of African-Americans during wartime, and South Pacific explores interracial marriage and prejudice. Finally, The King and I deals with different cultures' preconceived notions regarding each other and the possibility for cultural inclusiveness in societies.

Regarding the original author of Show Boat, Ann Shapiro states that

"Edna Ferber was taunted for being Jewish; as a young woman eager to launch her career as a journalist, she was told that the Chicago Tribune did not hire women reporters. Despite her experience of antisemitism and sexism, she idealized America, creating in her novels an American myth where strong women and downtrodden men of any race prevail... [Show Boat] create[s] visions of racial harmony... in a fictional world that purported to be America but was more illusion than reality. Characters in Ferber's novels achieve assimilation and acceptance that was periodically denied Ferber herself throughout her life."

Whether or not the show is racist itself, many contend that it is important to continue to be produced today because it serves as a history lesson of American race relations. According to African-American opera singer Phillip Lamar Boykin, who played the role of Joe in a 2000 tour, "Whenever a show deals with race issues, it gives the audience sweaty palms. I agree with putting it on the stage and making the audience think about it. We see where we came from so we don't repeat it, though we still have a long way to go. A lot of history would disappear if the show was put away forever. An artist must be true to an era. I'm happy with it".