Jechava

Whitelash

The creation of Whitelash was an ongoing process that began exactly one day after Donald Trump was elected president. I had taken a semester off from school to canvass for Bernie Sanders, which was a humbling experience that gave me the opportunity to travel to various states engaging with students on other college campuses. The years of 2015 and 2016 felt like the dawning of a new progressive era, with Black Lives Matter, Me Too, and democratic socialism gaining momentum in the country. At the same time, it was seen as a brash and frightening takeover by the alt-right, paving the way with Memes and jokes with blunt racism and bigotry. College campuses served as battlegrounds where the Ben Shapiro's and Milo Yiannopoulos’ of the world would enter to battle the embittered feminists, undocumented students, and disenfranchised minorities. Social media exploded with political debate and Tweets, fueling the growing resentment against one another. At the same time, the political losses of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton demonstrated a severe fracture in the Democratic Party that has yet to be repaired. The presidency of Donald Trump has created internment camps for undocumented children, the Muslim ban, and the scaling up of warfare in Syria and beyond. We are still living in the world of Whitelash - and it has become especially apparent in the 2020 Election and will continue to be significant in the foreseeable future. From the undocumented students to the refugee students, from conservative trolls to the Kentucky-born first generation college student, we find ourselves amongst a diverse cast of characters. But it’s all real. My inspirations were Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire along with Theater of the Oppressed by Augosto Boal. I hope you enjoy Whitelash, a Hip Hop Musical about the 2016 Election.

- Johnny Echavarria