5 min Click here to listen to this article

Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X LinkedIn Threads Reddit WhatsApp Copy Link URL Copied! Print

Copy Link URL Copied!

This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred

The new Broadway musical “Wanted,” opening this month in New York, is inspired by the true story of two fair-skinned Black women who passed for white during the Jim Crow era. And just as last year’s Oscar darling “Sinners” featured the Smokestack twins — a pair of antiheroes who robbed the unjust to survive in 1930s America — “Wanted” derives its name from the Clarke sisters sharing a similar Robin Hood philosophy in 1893.

In “Wanted” there is heartbreak, humor and, most importantly, truth. Perhaps not in the details of events, but certainly in its conveying of the human condition — particularly desperation.

In that way, the show’s opening days after a Democratic landslide, in which Black women represented the highest percentage of any demographic, is perfectly timed. For more than two years, this 92% voting bloc has dealt with a profound sense of personal rejection stemming from Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat in 2024, along with the loss of more than 600,000 jobs since President Trump’s return to office.

“Black Girl Magic” has an effervescent ring to it and looks great on T-shirts. But there is nothing effortless about organizing, canvassing and keeping it together when the whole of society is hellbent on tearing you apart.

That’s the bittersweet reality about resiliency: Everybody wants it, but you have to go through hell to get it. Historically for women of color, hell comes with a side of misogyny and racism, hence one of Malcolm X’s most enduring lines from 1962: “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman.”

That was true for Mary........

© Los Angeles Times