Portlander Damaris Webb explores racial gray areas in ‘The Box Marked Black’ |
Portlander Damaris Webb explores racial gray areas in ‘The Box Marked Black’
The Oregonian
Portland, Oregon
2013-02-16
When it came time for Damaris Webb to apply for college, her father encouraged her to check the box on application forms indicating “black” as her racial origin. For long enough in his family’s history, being black had made life difficult. But maybe in this circumstance, by the 1980s, it would be an advantage instead.
But she thought differently.
“I argued that I should mark ‘other,’ because that’s what I was,” Webb says in her solo theater piece “The Box Marked Black,” which opened last weekend at Ethos/IFCC. “Not that I was ashamed to be black. But I thought if I got into college for being black, when I showed up they’d be disappointed.”
Depending on what you believe about race and classifications thereof, Webb is black. Or white. Or both. Or either. Or other…
Read the entire article here.
Tags: Damaris Webb, Marty Hughley, Oregon, Portland, The Oregonian