Is this racist?

Again, as the song goes, we’re all a little bit racist. (And if you haven’t heard it, you should, so click here for the link) I’m not interested in pointing fingers here at anyone else. This is, in fact, a question I’m trying to answer about me, for my own edification, and I’m open to any of my formers weighing in.

J.K. Rowling is defending the choice of a black actor in the role of Hermione Granger for the Harry Potter stage production. Except that Emma Watson’s beautiful face is what I see when I think of Hermione, I have no problem with such a choice. I don’t see race as a factor in any of the Harry Potter characters.

But a few weeks ago we saw (in what was a pleasant surprise to me) a very good production of The Sound of Music at the Fox. This time I was admittedly disconcerted by the actor who played the role of Mother Superior.

She was talented and definitely more than capable of handling the role. But it bothered me that she was a black actor. Not that there aren’t black mother superiors (I assume – haven’t met any, but then I don’t hang out with nuns and haven’t met any of any color). But the play is set in Austria during the Nazi era.

My objection is with historical accuracy (and yes, I appreciate the irony of objecting to historical accuracy in a musical of any kind). I find it highly unlikely that there were any sisters of color in any order in Austria in the late 1930s, much less a Mother Superior.

On the other hand, were we to limit actors to only portraying characters who share the same racial profile as the original script or story, isn’t that racist? The casting did not in any way limit my enjoyment of the production, but neither could I move fully past what I perceived as an historical disconnect. 

And maybe the fact that I’m even thinking about this at all is evidence that the casting decision was the right one, perhaps for reasons that were never intended.