Letter by Julian Grant of San Francisco to the editor of the “San Francisco Chronicle”, posted 2014-01-30 [http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/letterstoeditor/article/Letters-to-the-editor-Jan-31-5191120.php]:
It's not blacklisting -
Does the resignation of an actress from a local theatrical production because of a threatened boycott constitute "blacklisting" ("Conservative Latinas need not apply here," Debra J. Saunders, Jan. 21 [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/01/21/conservative_latinas_need_not_apply_here_121295.html])?
According to the columnist, it does. However, the actress in question, Maria Conchita Alonso, freely chose to use her celebrity to bring attention to the GOP gubernatorial candidacy of an "anti-immigrant" politician, Tim Donnelly, by appearing in a video with him.
Similarly, the producers of a play such as "The Vagina Monologues" can freely cast, dismiss or accept the resignation of an actor or actress when a controversy threatens to overshadow the production and, perhaps, its financial prospects.
Alonso has not been "marginalized" or "blacklisted" because of her actions. No one has taken away her rights of free speech, association or employment. She has simply learned, as we all do, that the choices we make in life have consequences.
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Letter by Kevin Padian of Kensington to the editor of the “San Francisco Chronicle”, posted 2014-02-02
[http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/letterstoeditor/article/Letters-to-the-Editor-Feb-2-5194175.php]
Beating the blacklist -
When Sen. Joe McCarthy and his Red-baiters got the late Pete Seeger blacklisted from recording and performing in major venues during the 1950s, he was often reduced to earning a few bucks playing for elementary and middle-school students, teaching them the songs of harmony, peace and justice that he'd written and learned from Woody Guthrie and countless others. In time those kids grew up, sang his songs at summer camp, invited him to their college campuses, and rallied around his causes.
In the end, he may have done as much to raise the consciousness of social injustice among the American middle class as anyone since Martin Luther King. McCarthy and his goons never saw that coming. But no one did. All that with a five-string banjo and a bunch of kids' songs. Imagine.
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