Systemic Discrimination Creates Cultural Hegemony in the Arts
July 2018
Varma, Rahul. “Systemic Discrimination Creates Cultural Hegemony in the Arts,” Alt Theatre.
This article uses statistics and historical fact to challenge the diversity claims of theatre in Quebec. Rahul Varma speaks to the hypocrisy of many theatre companies that claim to be “diverse” because they have one person of a different race or gender orientation, and use that to get grant money. He mostly goes after the grant granters, Speaking directly of the CALQ (Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec) who were accused of discrimination against diverse groups and claimed they were not, even though the evidence suggests otherwise. Just because a theatre company claims to be diverse does not mean that they truly are. It is the responsibility of organizations like CALQ to do the due diligence required to make sure they are supporting the types of theatre they claim to promote. Mr. Varma then speaks to the clear distinction that is still made against diverse theatre, pointing out that “Art” is created in Europe and North America, while other parts of the world create “Folklore.” Unfortunately this is a cyclical discrimination- the art of minorities is discriminated against because it has not been represented or taken seriously in the past, but now these artists find themselves being discriminated against because their art is inferior…
I found the article compelling in its arguments and convicting to my own “artistic pallet.” But as the article implies, it is nothing short of a pure shame that the art of minorities is so poorly represented, as it creates a monotone, monolithic artistic style that does less and less to bring social change or help other people learn about the world around them. If we want to have our art and theatre become vibrant and challenging, we must embrace different points of view, and raise minority arts to the same level as “Euro-centric” artforms for the common good of all people. My biggest critique of this article is that it was clearly written for an educated audience, which I can’t help but feel makes it somewhat unapproachable, providing yet another challenge for those minority artist he is trying to advocate for.