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Wilmette Life reports that the Wilmette Park District has canceled an outdoor community theater production of Ragtime–you know, the hit musical based on a celebrated novel by E.L. Doctorow–because the script contains the so-called “n-word.” (Niggling? Numbing? Nasty?) Authorities feared that residents would hear the derogatory term over the Gillson Park PA system and think . . . what? Perhaps that the prosperous North Shore suburb was being overrun by the sort of folks at whom the n-word is usually directed.
“Colored folks work on de Mississippi,Colored folks work while de white folks play,
De white boss frown.Bend your knees
Upbeat and lighthearted, indeed. The real difference between Showboat and Ragtime is that Showboat‘s antebellum time frame makes it picturesque, while Ragtime concerns a black musician, free and talented, who’s driven mad with rage by America’s refusal to treat him as a man–a circumstance on which the statute of limitations has yet to run out.
