The ‘C’ Word

In early July protests shut down the production of SLĀV, a show at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal directed by Robert Lepage and consisting mainly of songs composed by African-American slaves. “This entire show is based on a flawed premise: that white people are altogether, ahem, entitled to put on a musical theatre revue about black slavery,” wrote Montreal Gazette journalist T’Cha Dunlevy. Two of six back-up singers were black, and Dunlevy noted that whenever a white one stepped up, the outcome was “unconvincing. This is not a comment on their talent but their skin colour, which pretty much disqualifies them from credibly portraying black slaves.”

SLĀV was condemned as an instance of “cultural appropriation,” a term familiar from previous controversies. A month before the SLĀV protests, Mount St. Vincent University in Halifax made...