N*W*C, which stands for N*GGERWETB*CKCH*NK, performed at Ohio University on Thursday to promote the dialogue of stereotypes and race.
Students, faculty and Athens residents filled the lower half of Templeton-Blackburn Memorial Auditorium and could not stop laughing at the blatant racial stereotypes performed by N*W*C.
As an addition to the Ohio University’s Performing Arts and Concert Series, N*W*C, which stands for N*GGERWETB*CKCH*NK, continued to promote the conversation of race on OU’s campus Thursday night through an autobiographical play that stars, Dionysio Basco, Rafael Agustin and Jackson McQueen.
After the performance, members of the play held a Q&A session open to audience members for any questions or concerns they may have had.
During Agustin’s dialogue, he said getting a lead role in Hollywood was difficult because of his race, and many times he was forced to play a stereotypical character within the industry.
“All of my auditions were like gang members or the poor little immigrant guy, and I didn’t want that to be my reality,” Agustin said.“That’s why I tried to do something about it and that’s why I co-created N*W*C because I wanted to write myself into existence.”
Basco said he hoped members of the audience received the message the group was trying to get across.
“There’s a lot of subliminal messages. There’s a lot of things that you will take away and realize later on down the line, or after the show,” Basco said. “We don’t want to tell you what you should have learned. … I think with our show, we get to people on a subliminal message ... through human stories, and I think that is why most people can relate to the show.”
Agustin said police brutality plays an important role in the race movement.
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“We say in the show that the most dangerous words in N***er, W**back, C**nk is race because race is a social construct,” Agustin said. “But just because race doesn’t exist that doesn’t mean racism is not real. We have a huge problem in our prison system and the police and how minorities are treated. … All they’re trying to say is, ‘Hey black lives matter, and we really need to focus on black lives because it’s something terrible.’ ”
Summer Finley, a freshman studying theater performance, said the show helped the audience feel comfortable about the topic of race, which helped audience members understand the show's message.
“I think that it kind of made light of the conversation and situation as to how we actually feel about about ourselves and our race and the image,” Finley said. “I don’t know if it really made them feel anyway towards the movement but I think that it made them realize certain situations highlighting how we feel about our race and why we want to protest against that.”
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