Khalid Alsaidi

Dr. Robb/Prof. Wise-Lawrence

American Musical Theatre

29 October 2018

                                                  The Truth Behind Oklahoma!

      Oklahoma! was first introduced in 1943. However during that time, America had just defeated its worst worst financial crisis in country history. 1929-1938 marked what possibly could have been the downfall of the country after the roaring twenties. “One in five people are unemployed in 1933” (NY Times 1). It would take the economy almost ten years to return to its stable state. Having said that it is even more prevalent to mention that not as many people were in the right financial state to watch a musical and make it successful during the year 1943. Now, with all this in mind, ask yourself how did Oklahoma! prevail in such times and with such a low budget? Oklahoma! marks the traditional cowboy life and through its amazing plotline, Oklahoma! Is recognized and has caused viewers to fall deeply into the worldly acclaimed musical. Although It’s amazing to think about how a musical is still talked about after over 70 years. I believe a huge part of that is because of a broad issue that I will break down that has caught critics eyes over the years. Oklahoma! degrades African Americans by showing how the white community chose to marginalize the stand-in black character Jud.

      Jud Fry is a character within Oklahoma! that is shown throughout the musical to receive subtly different treatment. Many authors today, including Andrea Most, sparked controversy when the idea was brought up stating that the community disrespected Jud Fry on several occasions because of his African-American race identity. These occasions, including his relationship and conversations with  Curly and within the community overall, will demonstrate the aspects of what was wrong when these people interacted with Jud. And in analyzing scenes that contained these dark moments involving the disrespect of Jud, we can make the connection with what the African American community had to deal with the white community during the 40s. This will all play major benefactors when depicting whether or not if Oklahoma! truly did have a racial motif.

      Throughout the musical, Jud is subjected to many forms of disrespect throughout Oklahoma! that degrades him as a character. An article goes over this and supports my statement by providing examples. Andrea Mosts “The Theatricality of Assimilation in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!” is an accurate representation on Oklahoma’s! basis towards Jud Fry. It assesses how the musical Oklahoma! thought a black man should be constructed, and how there is an involvement of racial superiority in the play and how it affects each character’s role. “His sexuality, like that of the stereotypical black man, is threatening” (Most, page 83) is a direct quote from Mosts essay that describes how Juds sexuality is depicted by Laurie within the musical. Like Andrea Most, I also believe that Oklahoma! often displays Jud as the racially stereotypical black man of the musical. You’ll also   see how Laurie thinks of Jud on her comments about him in the same scene when she explains to aunt     Eller “I hook my door at night and fasten my winders agin’ it”(Oklahoma!). You’ll notice that Laurie has no problems with calling Jud by “it”. It is a dehumanizing factor that’s countlessly displayed upon Jud over and over in Oklahoma! and provided can be an example of what society failed to realize during the 40s.

      Robert Hapgood makes a response to Andrea Mosts essay as a means to defend the fact that Oklahoma! does not display racist intent towards Jud within the article Oklahoma! And Assimilation. However it is an article I must disagree with. Hapgood states within his reply to Most that “the racial and ethnic dynamics Most outlines is not “submerged” in Oklahoma! but nonexistent”(Hapgood page 453). There are several pieces of evidence all throughout Oklahoma! that suggests otherwise. This and with Mosts argument can be supported by having a look at the character of Jud. Despite the fact that Juds character is defined as Afro-American, regardless he is depicted as a white male in live musicals. It is also worth noting that the original intention of Oklahoma! was to celebrate indian nationalism, instead of what is shown instead in the musical where it celebrates American nationalism. This all seemingly places the Oklahoma! in a spot where it’d rather choose to define a white community instead. Further supporting this is the many counts of scenes and actions throughout Oklahoma! that seem to target Jud. I’d like to believe that Jud being inhabited within a smokehouse, called a ‘brute’ by Laurie, being described as a ‘bullet-colored’ angry dark man by the stage directions and being considered sexually threatening to white women is of pure coincidence. I really would like to believe in that but to say that the racial dynamics in Oklahoma! doesn’t exist is close to impossible when Oklahoma! seemingly establishes Jud’s identity through various different racist stereotypes back in the 1940s regarding an African American man.

      I wanted to look at circumstances of Jud’s treatment from a historical point of view. By now, you’ve seen some examples of  how throughout the musical Jud’s character is treated with a lack of respect from various characters of the community. In the early 1900s, traditional African-American choreography had unfortunately been in rough patches.The essay within a book i found “Black Influence on Choreography of the American musical Theatre since 1930” encompasses just that. “Taking the half century stretching from 1930 to the present, many musicals had refused to include traditional African-American choreography because productions thought of the choreography to be so called primitive” (LONG, page 324). That exactly was what was wrong with our societal past. The fact that it was alright to display a lack of consideration for other cultures to be included in musicals was horrendous. And I believe it was thought to be okay simply because of the time period this musical was made. The 1940’s American society did not display welcoming arms for the African American community, this is well known, however I wanted to make this connection to the way the community treats Jud to establish a common grounds that Oklahoma! and the time period of the 1940s both had issues with interacting with the African American community.        

      In many scenes in Oklahoma! the way that the people in the community expressed themselves amongst Jud is extremely questioning. One of those scenes in particular takes place in Curlys visit to Jud after finishing up errands over at the farm house. Basically Curly and Jud conversate over Juds past and his upbringing, however Curly at several points during the scene exemplifies questionable to horrific statements towards Jud. One questionable statement I’d like to mention was when Jud was venting to Curly about how the two places he’s worked before had employers that “treated him like dirt” and how they’ve always thought they were better. Curly responds to Jud with “What, did you do get even?” and in the same sentence proceeds to state “it just came in my head is all”.  Now, this is a really important form of statement to analyze that Curly gives towards Jud. You’ll notice that Curly tries to justify his reasoning for accusing Jud of aggressive retaliation by explaining it was the first thing that just came in mind. But the question still remains and one would ask, why was it the first thing to come in mind that has Curly to believe Jud is a man with aggressive nature and retaliates against his past employers with vengeance in mind? At this point there’s a lot of tension in the scene between both characters. However, Curly stretches it even further in the same scene when he started  commenting on Juds rope. Curly goes on and states how he could hang himself with this rope and demonstrates how he’d be able to do it. Jud isn’t in the right state of mind and Curly knows and takes advantage of this. He continues to state how people would miss him after his death and how he’d smell like flowers, as if to persuade Jud to end his life. This in turn has Curly essentially stating that everyone would miss him only once he’s gone, indicating that as of now in the current state that Jud is alive, he isn’t appreciated, not cared for and he truly is just a hired hand. As a viewer of this musical you can’t help but feel a very toxic conversation between Jud and Curly that is rather fueled by racial slurs. The scene goes on and starts with the number “Poor Jud is Daid”.

      Poor Jud is Daid is a song within Oklahoma! performed by Curly’s character that analyzes what Curly believes what would happen should Jud commit to hanging himself, a dark statement that is rather one of the worst things you can say to anyone. Throughout this song, there are several lines of lyrics i’d like to address that seem to target Jud. One in particular has Curly stating “People used to think he was a mean ugly feller and they called him a dirty skunk and an ornery pig stealer” (Oklahoma!). Through this lyric Jud is reduced to being ugly, mean and unlikable, and is described in animalistic terms as a ‘skunk’.  It is at this point of the song that you really start to notice the dehumanizing factors Poor Jud is Daid truly has in describing Jud. Curly reveals what he really thinks of Jud but disguises it through the song, and one thing to note is no other person within the entire Oklahoma! cast receives these types of horrific comments. This is even further demonstrating the lack of value the community holds for Jud’s life. So as you can well imagine, a scenario does not exists where this would be appropriate to tell anybody. But what’s concerning and worth noting is Jud’s take on the song. He mentions that “folks are feeling sad cause they use to treat him bad”. The one lyric that Jud joins in on the song is when Curly starts romanticizing the ramifications of his death, manipulated into believing that his death would bring peace, an extreme sign that Jud is truly depressed.  It is from these lyrics that you learn how Jud feels about how the community treats him.

     There is also the common relation to make between Jud and Ali-hakeem. They are both outsiders living amongst a cowboy traditioned white community. However it must be heavily noted in the difference in treatment both characters receive. Ali-Hakeem is said to be of Jewish descent, or in other versions of Oklahoma! as Persian. However in comparison to Jud, he seems to have been welcomed by the community with open arms, and they accept him as the travelling merchant. In most cases I felt that Ali-Hakeem was a part of the Oklahoma! community, engaging with the crowd in business. Even further supporting this is the fact that Ali- Hakeem engages with a member of the community, Ado-Annie, in marriage. With Jud on the other hand, It’s very noticeable that he is not appreciated within the community. More often than not Oklahoma! demonstrates a lack of respect towards Jud. With Curly directing statements that Jud is dirty and a pig stealer. Or with him being described as a brute by Laurie, the same woman that mentioned Jud as “it”. He is also in a spot where it’s almost as if no regards were taken into keeping im felt like he was in a safe haven. Unlike the comfortable livelihood of the white community within Oklahoma!, Jud, the one of the two diverse people in the cast, is instead inhabited within a smokehouse, This in turn shows a great example of how the Oklahoma! community is marginalizing Jud.

      Although it is well known that in history the African American community constantly struggled within America to become equals amongst society, this same idea can be applied with how Jud is treated from the Oklahoma! community. 1943, the same year Oklahoma! was made, was one of many years that shows and exemplifies this. Many riots ensued throughout the year including the detroit race riots in June and the Harlem riots of August. Both of these riots had common grounds and a goal the African American community wanted to achieve. “Negro leaders insisted not on merely rights…but on same rights, the privilege to use the same facilities as whites, bathrooms, hotels, restaurants”(Turner, page one, New York Times). This seems to be a common issue society had faced back in the early 20th century, and is an issue Oklahoma! Is not excused from. You see a perfect example in Oklahoma! of non equal treatment, where towards the end of the musical it is shown how the Oklahoma! community deals with the case involving Jud and Curly. Right away you see something isn’t right when the case lasts for less than a couple of minutes and the community at its entirety besides the marshal were okay with holding a makeshift trial to Aunt Eller’s discretion on the spot of Jud’s death. And the many witnesses that testified on Curly’s behalf did so in such a false manner, stating that they seen it happen when they weren’t present. This all begs the question, should Jud’s skin color had been white would the community had treated the case differently? This case involved the murder of somebody’s life, whether being ruled self defense or not a proper trial should always be conducted. And the rather positive tone in music that plays after the scene “oh what a beautiful mornin’” as if nothing had just occurred is a rather sinister way to end the musical that would leave today’s audience blatantly staring at the screen.

      Oklahoma! divides and marginalizes the African American and white community. It is disturbing to see how the racial undertones within the musical can be masked, or how the musical rejects that there exists a racialist language within the scenes. It is because of this that I believe that the Oklahoma! musical simply cannot be revisited nor recreated. For today’s societal standards Oklahoma! would need to be revamped and re-scripted a considerably copious amount, that it’d have to become its own musical. Similar to how Oklahoma! Is deprived from its predecessor, Green grow the Lilacs. As a society we need to continue to learn how in describing a race in negative aspects can result in backlash whether it be in a musical or a conversation, and in realizing this we take the first steps into bettering ourselves and society.