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CUNY Students Petition to Cancel Emmett Till Opera Written by White Woman

The petition by John Jay College students garnered more than 11,000 signatures by Sunday morning.

Students at City University of New York’s John Jay College launched a petition last week to cancel an opera based on the killing of Emmett Till, arguing its white author misappropriated the tragedy for the sake of white guilt. Petitioner Mya Phillips alleges Claire Coss’ opera would center around a progressive white female teacher, shifting the focus away from Till’s murder. “Clare Coss has creatively centered her white guilt by using this play to make the racially motivated brutal torture and murder of a 14-year-old child about her white self and her white feelings,” Bishop wrote. A representative for Coss, 86, and Black composer Mary Watkins told the New York Post that the opera actually centered around Till’s mother. Coss also said the two wrote the opera to touch on how they were “deeply and differently impacted by the barbaric lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in the Mississippi Delta, and the failure of justice.” Watkins blasted the petition in her own statement: “It is an insult to me as a Black woman and to the company members who are African-American.”