Two years ago my favorite playwriting instructor, Cassandra Medley, wrote a play called Relativity. A play that dramatizes the argument that melanin makes people of color smarter. Recently L.A. Theaterworks made the play available for internet listening. But the question still remains: Does melanin make black folk smarter?
I can tell you now, I'm not an advocate for genetic-racial superiority, meaning I don't believe melanin makes anyone more psychic, athletic, intellectual or humane. Cassandra Medley doesn't believe it either. She's simply posing an interesting argument between western science and a scientific belief system that grew out of a marginalized group. Now I won't lie, when I was living in the San Francisco, not combing my hair, refusing to wear brand names, I read plenty, listened to plenty. From Frances Cress Wesling to James Baldwin, I was determined to make sense out of my young, neo-soul Bohemian existence. What I discovered was I just wanted to be me. Melanin as the deciding factor in my personal significance was as exhausting as using crystal as underarm deodorant. [Which doesn't mean I dismissed why the conversation about race was important.] When you're marginalized, it's a natural impulse [one would think], to put yourself front and center.
But Relativity takes a much deeper look at the issue of melanin. The play's characters question genetic predisposition and genetic marking. They poke fun at fanatical black thinking as well as cloning. One of the characters believe cloning is one way the larger scientific community will attempt to engineer African markers out of existence. Another character believes there is no scientific conclusion for race, only frequency in genetic marking. I have to tell you, during my baby-years I attended plenty of Afro-centered conferences and hobnobbed with the likes of Haki Madhubuti, Sonia Sanchez and August Wilson. But the conference that sticks out the most was in Chicago when during the intro of some grand Afrocentric with [literally] ten degrees, Sonia broke out into a wail and then recited a poem about homophobia in the black church. The place went silent. Her point, I believe, was we have much more critical matters in our midst. But when the grand Afrocentric began laughing during Sonia's riff it was clear his matters were not the same as hers.
Cassandra Medley's Relativity is smart. It doesn't leave the audience with any clear side on the scientific question of melanin except to believe what one wants. And, that arguing over genetic superiority could actually offer nothing golden except to the black science community who follow it. Interesting stuff.
You can hear the play at L.A. Theaterworks. I've attached the link.
