FAIR Artist Grant winner Kevin Ray writes for White Rose Magazine:

I am trained as a teaching artist and a theater director. Before voicing my objection to embedding CSJ concepts into K–12 instruction, I had steady employment as a teaching artist. After refusing to comply, my workload was cut to a fraction of what it once was. Teaching theater and directing plays is not just my profession; it is what gives my life meaning. I am not alone in observing that the price of exclusion from the arts is equal parts fairforall.substack.com…]financial, psychological, and spiritual.

In conversations with people who insist we are past “peak woke,” I often explain the difference between our experiences. “You may feel that way because you’re still able to work in your field,” I say. “I’m not as certain, because I’m evidently barred from full-time employment in mine for refusing to affirm activist beliefs.”

Arts and education employers have become adept at ensuring dissenters never make it past the gate. Last summer, I applied for a leadership position at a small performing arts venue in Brooklyn. With two master’s degrees and a long career in the arts, I met or exceeded many of the listed requirements.

Then I reached a bullet point under “qualifications” that read:

Demonstrated commitment to fostering creative community and supporting diverse artistic voices, including a commitment to the organization’s values: anti-racist and anti-capitalist principles; BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and disability justice; inclusivity; access; sustainability; and freedom of expression.

What kind of cultural moment are we living in when a job description explicitly requires commitment to “anti-capitalist principles”? This organization is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that cannot survive without capitalism. It relies on income from various sources—ticket sales, grant funding, individual donations—in order to produce work. In addition to receiving funds, presumably this organization participates in other capitalist practices such as paying artists and their electric bill.

It is reasonable to wonder whether anyone on this organization’s board questioned how “freedom of expression” could coexist with mandatory ideological commitments. But I suspect no one raised such questions because, by now, many of us have learned that even asking them can result in professional exile.