Roles: Game Design, Research, Writing
An ominous and live theatrical guessing game
about words that fit everyone,
in that they fit no one.
Performed at Sandbox
Materials:
3 anonymous masks were worn by readers.
Warning:
Contains explicit and vulgar language, from real quotes from Twitter and online sources written to someone or about a group of people. Quotes have been modified to be second-person perspective.
Intro:
What does it mean to be in someone else’s shoes? What does it mean to be yourself in your body- but as others see you? Specifically, when you’re subject to people’s ideas of who you are based on gender, race, sexuality, or stereotypes, you’re subject to a “double consciousness.” How do you react when others can’t see you beyond these personas or when you can’t unsee the altered perspectives of how others see you? “Because blacks can only see themselves through the altered perspective of whites (double consciousness), they are left no choice but to attempt to cross the solidified color line by passing.” (Source: esposial link)
I thought of how I empathize with people- specifically how I understand people’s pain in trying to come up with this game idea. When people judge others using stereotypes of personas created by society, to an extent, anyone can be subject to those words and no one really fits those words. For example, Frantz Fanon was an Afro-Caribbean philosopher and revolutionary who wrote Black Skin, White Masks in thinking through what his stance on racism was- which was often evolving and in-between. As someone who identifies as part of the well-educated middle class, he was still subject to the words “dirty nigger.” In using these words, people place him not necessarily into his shoes but into the shoes of any Black Man. In this, he entered this society that tried to define him for just his skin color. In his identity, he had to live in the tension of accepting the culture of the colonizer while still subject to the inferiority complex due to the historicized racism. In response to these words, Fanon “wanted to kill [himself] laughing, but laughter had become out of the question” (Fanon 91). There’s a tension in his reaction to wanting to laugh at the fact that someone would call him a “dirty nigger” but in reality, laughing was out of the question.
In Performance:
One Silent volunteer stood in silence for the duration of the game- to be targeted.
Three Loud volunteers in masks stood with quotes regarding one persona and read it out loud popcorn style.
Once the quotes were done being read, the Silent volunteer were asked to guess what type of persona or “fanonenon” the quotes were creating.
This piece was originally performed by volunteers with a live audience and has been adapted for reading.
Now, are you ready? You are playing the role of the Silent Volunteer in this piece, right now.
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FANONENON: HOMELESS
Intensity: Medium
Instructions:
Do not reveal the “fanonenon” or persona to anyone else.
Put on your mask.
Read the following quotes in “popcorn style” - out of order, as many as you’d like, pause when you’re done- with others who are masked.
Quotes:
“If you want change, let me throw it at your dirty face”
“I wonder if you people go to heaven”
“I hate it when it gets cold outside, all these people get on the bus”
“maybe if you people took care of yourselves, looked pretty, we'd want to help you. I don't help yellow teeth.”
“never understand why you smell of piss when you can literally piss anywhere.”
“I was enjoying a latte when I saw one of your kind on the other side of the street. I almost vomited.”
“Who are you?”
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FANONENON: FEMALE GAMER/ FEMALE
Intensity: High
Instructions:
Do not reveal the “fanonenon” or persona to anyone else.
Put on your mask.
Read the following quotes in “popcorn style” - out of order, as many as you’d like, pause when you’re done- with others who are masked.
Quotes:
“Are you as overweight, awkward, and lazy as we think you are?”
“Go fuck yourself stupid cunt. Learn your shit before you try to make something out of nothing.”
“The main reason why all the harassment is because of all you dumb bitches who want to be superior. Hope you die raped.”
“Don’t pull the gender card. You’re not being harassed because you’re one of them, it’s because you’re an arrogant cunt.”
“Your mutilated corpse will be on the front page of Jezebel tomorrow and there isn’t jack shit you can do about it.”
“If you have kids, they’re going to die too. I don’t give a fuck. They’ll grow up to be like you anyways.”
“Kill yourself. you’re a waste of air also more games should have girl characters half naked such as “Tomb Raider” etc.”
“Men have made the world such a safe and comfortable place that you now have time to bitch about equality”
“I’d never let one of you kick my ass. If you tried something, I’d be like hey, you get your bitch ass back into the kitchen and bake me some pie.”
“Keep the transvestites out of the bathroom so you people can be safe. As one of them, you should agree with me.”
“If you people want to participate in no shave november, then you will be celebrating no dick december.”
“I think all you people should be gagged. You’re all bloody noisy.”
“Who are you?”
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FANONENON: BLACK
Intensity: High
Instructions:
Do not reveal the “fanonenon” or persona to anyone else.
Put on your mask.
Read the following quotes in “popcorn style” - out of order, as many as you’d like, pause when you’re done- with others who are masked.
Quotes:
Less about guessing and more about feeling who the words are meant for.
“Why do black people enjoy Kool-Aid so much?”
“Fuck Niggers.”
“fuck you you fucking nigger. go eat some bananas and get ebola you dirty monkey.”
“when will you get it in your stupid head that nobody likes your black ass”
“boohoo! Stop crying and get over it. Who would rape you? ur a fucking ugly nigger bitch”
“When the perpetrator is black, oh well; its so common place its not considered newsworthy, and surely does not fit the propagandists…”
“And isn’t it funny. I’ve got black accountants at Trump Castle and Trump Plaza. Black guys counting my money! I hate it,” O’Donnell recalled Trump saying.
“I think the guy is lazy,” Trump said of a black employee, according to O’Donnell. “And it’s probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.”
“In response to Black Lives Matter protestor, “Maybe [the protester] should have been roughed up,” he mused. “It was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.”
“What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump?” he said. “What do you have to lose? You’re living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs. 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?”
“Who are you?”
Quote Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkKEYsizz6Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f_kavukuKI
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-racist-examples_us_56d47177e4b03260bf777e83
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/08/19/trump_to_black_voters_you_re_poor_so_vote_for_me.html
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