This morning we saw the play Hooray for Thanksgiving, put on by the highly accomplished drama troupe known as The Mrs. Nalley’s 1st Grade Class Players.

I noticed with amusement that the Thanksgiving turkey, while being taunted in song that he would be eaten soon and how did he feel about that, was still being courteously referred to by his proper title “Mr. Turkey.”

Halfway into the pivotal scene, when the Indian Men (”BIG AND BRAVE!”) and the Pilgrim men (”BANG BANG!”) were hunting down Mr. Turkey (”GOBBLE GOBBLE!”), Jennifer poked me.

“Does it bother you that all the Indians are played by children of … ethnic origin?”

Well, it hadn’t till then, and I said so. But then I started thinking: What if the casting was completely colorblind, as I believe hiring and employment should be (vs. affirmative action)? Like it or not, the pilgrims were white Europeans, and their American hosts were just that: Native Americans. Representing them as anything else would be unrealistic. You wouldn’t cast African-Americans as the leads in Fiddler on the Roof, would you?

On the other hand, who cares about political-correctness in even a public elementary school play, anyway? Half of the kids announced they were thankful for Jesus dying for their sins, right in front of everybody, which took a few guts. And I suspect some of the other children were (in part) merely copying the ones before them when they would shyly but quickly say “I’m thankful for my family.”