GRAVITY DEFIED:

UNPACKING THE PARALLELS OF RACIAL AND COLOR-BASED OPPRESSION IN A SCHOLARLY EXPLORATION OF “WICKED” AND THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

By: Mr. Terrance J. Bolton – Ph.D. Student Prairie View A&M University

“Something has changed within me. Something is not the same”.

-Elphaba Thropp

The saying goes, “Art imitates life”. As a man of African descent here in the United States, the movie Wicked has awakened a thought process inside my head that compels me to ask the question, “Why is pigmentation and ethnicity such a determining factor in how men and women are treated in the United States or even in the world at large?” From enslavement to emancipation, Black men and women have been subjected to oppression –often simply due to their very existence. Black people in the black experience are cast as antagonistic, antithetical, anathema to the status quo. Said differently, black people are frequently framed as villains in stories that they neither created, nor asked to participate in.

In the movie Wicked, the central character Elphaba Thropp (The Wicked Witch of the West), we have been persecuted and made the outcast in society based on the color of our skin, but this tale goes far beyond just the oppression of pigmentation. The story of her rise to infamy came with a series of societal misconceptions and prejudices parallel to Black men and women having faced our own satires and caricatures. The intersectionality of who we truly are and what perceptions are thrusted upon us are completely east and west of each other (pun intended). I truly feel like I've been lied to my entire life on both sides of the spectrum to protect an innocence that does not really exist.

When I was growing up, the story was the Wicked Witch of the West was an evil woman who wreaked havoc upon the citizens of Oz due to her barbarism. In the very same manner, it was told to me in school that back in Africa the tribes that were the strongest would sell the weaker tribes to the English tradesmen and that is how slavery truly began. This was another lie. 38 years later, I encountered the story of Wicked which tells the true accounts of who Elphaba Thropp was and how she came into this legendary title of villainy. No different than when I entered college, the truth of how slavery and enslavement (inclusive of the unlawful capturing of free men both on U.S. soil and abroad took place and they were sold into the slave trade) Ref. 12 Years a Slave (1853).

We all know this story is made to satisfy the phrase “Good will always triumph over evil”. However, the details not given in the original story give way to a brand-new understanding of this fable thereby making the title comparison possible. The Wizard emerges a fraud savior of the people in the same light as the White Patriarchal Capitalist system of leadership in the U.S. by soliciting their “fake tactics and false economics” to garner support making citizens think they will American greater and truly makes it worse. No different than Oz beginning to lose part of its mystical capabilities in the animal’s speech becoming extinct and falsehoods of leadership with the prophecy of the arrival of the savior in which it honestly is Elphaba, not the Wizard.

Galinda (or Glinda the Good) takes the form of the one entity who was mistreated as a minority group and turned their backs on the others based on her own selfish inconsistencies and attempted personal gain.. White and Latina women. She lives in a true bubble making her wit and womanly ways her strong suit amongst the people. She is praised for being “so good” but in all actuality, she is wicked herself. She betrayed Elphaba, by groveling in submission when Elphaba uncovered the truth about the Wizard not being able to read the Grimmerie (not to mention when Madame Morrible summons the next tornado bringing Dorothy Gale to Oz killing NessaRose and giving her and Elphaba’s mothers slippers to Dorothy) No different than the above-mentioned racial group of women turning out for Vice President Kamala Harris during her election campaigning for the 2024 Presidency as she continuously uncovered the darkest truths about former President Donald Trump and based on the election results, they betrayed Vice President Harris and assisted in reelecting him into the White House.

Vice President Harris was villainized for doing her job as a prosecutor for the state of California riddled with lies about how she unjustly jailed men for petty crimes which was a lie. This same injustice and villainy were attached to Elphaba by the real wicked witch “Madame Morrible”. She is the person who made the first public claims about Elphaba being evil and calling her a liar, deceitful and wicked. This also sheds a light of memory about how a “Glinda the good” in reality (Hillary Rodham Clinton) villainized black men calling us “Superpredators”.  She had the chance to be a great leader in this country but failed to the same monster as V.P. Harris. Hillary Clinton has since apologized for remarks she made in a 1996 speech, in which she used the word superpredators to describe kids with “no conscience, no empathy” who committed crimes, no less the damage had already been done.

The ending song “Defying Gravity” is a declaration built on the resilience. Sort of a “We Shall Overcome” ballad as the minority race in this country projected an overturning of the disgusting unfairness built throughout our history here. It is a testament to going beyond the limits of what those who would have us be anything less than great would allow and trusting our own instincts while making our own way in this world outside of the limitation’s others have and would place on our lives.

The connection to this song builds an even more intense feeling of hope for the days to come.

So, think about this. How will you dare to defy your own gravity? What are the intersections of your life that will present a stronger framework within your rise to greatness? I ask this question to make scholars think about how easy it is for the insecurities of others to be impressed upon themselves. You are the author of the content of your life – Barbara Jordan. I challenge all readers to follow this code: Be cautious of what guidance you receive. Live beyond the limits placed on you and be brave enough to take that very first leap. You never know how high you will soar until you try.

References:

Granderson, L. (2024, November 7). There’s no mystery. White women handed Trump the election. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/column/there-no-mystery-white-women-handed-trump-election

Maguire, G. (1995). Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. HarperCollins.

McQueen, S. (Director). (2013). 12 years a slave [Motion picture]. Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Northup, S. (1853). Twelve years a slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, Reprinted by Penguin Books (2013).

Reilly, K. (2016, February 25). Hillary Clinton apologizes for ‘superpredator’ remark. Time. https://time.com/4240056/hillary-clinton-superpredator-apology/