When students auditioned for Clayton High School’s 2022 mainstage musical, they didn’t expect any curveballs. The theater department set out to perform The Drowsy Chaperone, a show parodying an early 1920’s musical comedy. The show wasn’t perfect to begin with; the act two opener features a song overtly making fun of Chinese culture called “Message from a Nightingale” and the show also includes other “tongue-and-cheek moments,” as described by Kelly Weber, the show’s director. The theater department had no question they were to cut these elements, as they offer no real development to the plot, however they missed a key step: telling people.

Everything from the most well-known pieces of the Star Wars universe to obscure details included only in old cartoons and comics contains an insidious racism that will often be overlooked by white fans but is glaringly obvious to fans of color.