The musical-turned-movie “Wicked” has taken the box office by storm—so much so that the second installation, “Wicked: For Good,” is trending at the box office. I was stunned to hear yet again certain Black pastors admonishing Christians about seeing the movie. These same pastors came out against the movie “Sinners.”
Yet they have nothing to say about the wickedness being perpetrated from the Oval Office. They have nothing to say about the ACA, also known as ObamaCare, being defunded and dismantled. They have no words concerning how corporations are caving in to the government shakedown to disavow DEI.
They are silent concerning the administration cutting free entrance to national parks for Dr. King’s holiday and Juneteenth. Yet there is a powerful story being told in “Wicked” concerning how people who are different get labeled to limit them by a society that sees difference as deficiency.
The main character, Elphaba, played by Cynthia Erivo, was born with green skin and is stereotyped and stigmatized because of the color of her skin. She eventually discovers her internal worth and value, which leads to her embracing her own agency.
The culminating song, sung by Erivo and Ariana Grande, “Defying Gravity,” is all about not allowing the demeaning descriptions of others around her to define her. She becomes resolute in not allowing the labels of others to limit her but instead to liberate her, and she embraces her ability to fly—thus “Defying Gravity.”
The phrase “defying gravity” is a metaphor for resisting labels and stereotypes that marginalize people. This theme of resistance can be witnessed in the Gospel of John. The religious ruffians of the first century, the Pharisees, label Jesus as demon-possessed in the tenth chapter of John because he healed a man born blind on the Sabbath day.
They further tried to stone him to death because he claimed to be on one accord with God. Jesus thus was demonized in order to justify destroying him.
Racism, white supremacy, and white Christian nationalism of evangelicals have long used this demonic strategy to not only limit people who are different but to even justify killing innocent people they disagree with. African people were deemed subhuman by racists from Europe who sought to justify barbarically subjugating them and using them for profit in the tobacco, sugar cane, and cotton fields of the Americas and Caribbean.
The same strategy was used by Europeans on the Indigenous peoples here in the Americas, as well as Chinese and Japanese immigrants. We see this sinister strategy being used on present-day immigrants as the occupant of the White House gaslights people from Haiti, saying “they’re eating cats and dogs,” while describing Somali immigrants as “garbage,” and demonizing people in fishing boats in the Caribbean as drug smugglers in order to illegally bomb boats to kill them without any due process.
The metaphor of defying gravity is meant to motivate oppressed and marginalized people to embrace their intrinsic worth. It is a form of resistance to the reckless use of rhetoric by the imperial cult of America by raising the raison d’être of their right to exist and be cherished as human beings.
Oppressed people have always had to defy the gravity of whiteness to elevate above the twisted and toxic madness of public policies that unjustly prohibit the progress of people who happen not to be categorized as white. Defying the gravity of hate, racism, classism, ageism, ableism, sexism, and genderism has become a way of life for oppressed people in America and around the world.
Defying gravity is what the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was all about. The musical-turned-movie “Wicked”holds valuable insights in its use of the metaphor in the closing song “Defying Gravity.”
Be aware, be authentic, and stay woke during this Advent season! Uhuru Sassa!!!
The Rev. Dr. John E. Jackson, Sr. is the Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ-Gary, 1276 W. 20th Ave. in Gary. “We are not just another church but we are a culturally conscious, Christ-centered church, committed to the community; we are unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian.” Contact the church by email at [email protected] or by phone at 219-944-0500.