“Hairspray” is a comedic musical with a lot of fun characters, that deals with serious subjects throughout the musical.
“Hairspray” addresses important themes of racism, body image, activism, etc.
The movie is set in Baltimore, MD in the 1960s and segregation takes center stage.
In the Corny Collins Show, a main white cast performs every day, while the black cast only performs one day a week. There is also a rope that breaks the room apart so the black cast is segregated from the white.
Tracy, a white teenage girl, makes history by having the Corny Collins Show integrate cast members at the end of the musical.
One of the most important moments of the musical is during the song, “I know where I’ve been”.
During this song, a March takes place to protest segregation. The March ends with Police violence.
Even though this musical takes place in the 60s, the issues of systematic racism and police violence is very relevant to today.
The Black Lives Matter peaceful protests and the police response to those protests are filmed on social media for all to see.
As Motormouth Maybelle sings, “There’s a struggle that we have yet to win,” we continue to voice it will take all of us to work towards change.
Here is some Organizations you can support through the Black Lives Matter Movement.
Color of change
Movement for Black Lives
Black Visions Collective
The Bail Project
Minnesota Freedom Fund