The consequences of the delusional perception of justice brought upon America with the help of Black Lives Matter continues to be a trap for innocent citizens trying to earn an income.
The New York Post reported this week that an interpreter who spoke sign language was dismissed from the smash Broadway musical “The Lion King.” What was his biggest mistake?
Keith Wann, 53, was one of the two people who were ejected from the show through the nonprofit Theatre Development Fund – which manages Broadway productions using American Sign Language interpreters – after the organization decided that they were “no longer appropriate to have white interpreters represent black characters for ASL Broadway shows.”
Wann filed a federal discrimination lawsuit Tuesday against the company and their director for accessibility, Lisa Carling.
Carling instructed the interpreter to “back out” of the show, the show is celebrating its 25th anniversary this Sunday — so that the pair could get replaced with black sign language experts, as per the lawsuit as well as email that was obtained by The Post.
Carling's email was full of embarrassment as she attempted to make a case for the matter. The Director of Accessibility appeared to be able to comprehend what was the “delicacy” of the situation.
“With great embarrassment and apologies, I'm asking you both to please back out of interpreting the show for us on Sunday, April 24,” Carling wrote. “I do not see an alternative to this. It's the most sensible option.”
What if the “best solution” was to dismiss two employees who had committed their lives to making normal American experiences accessible to those who are hearing impaired, simply because they were of the wrong color skin?
Carling's choice was at the request of Shelly Guy, the director of ASL for “The Lion King,” who demanded Carling to remove all interpreters that were not black according to a different communication discovered through The Post and cited in the lawsuit.
“The majority of the characters in the Lion King are black actors and the content takes place in Africa,” Guy wrote to Carling on April 1.
“Keith Wann, though an amazing ASL performer, is not a black person and therefore should not be representing Lion King,” she said.
To his credit, Wann did not seem enthusiastic about making a big statement about the outright discrimination, however, he was aware that something was illegally done. Not just unjust, but illegal as well. The ASL interpreter claimed it was a matter of “lost sleep over it,” before deciding to appeal the case to the Manhattan Federal Court. Wann says he's been an interpreter in a variety of productions without any issues in the past.
His experience with interpreters as well as performing in New York spans over a decade, which means there isn't an issue with the manner of his work. Even in the event that the production attempted to make it into an issue of work performance, the emails in the suit are quite infuriating. There's really no other way to describe this. Wann along with his fellow coworkers were dismissed due to their appearance.
