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 and Martha Clarke, the real-life great-great-aunts of Angelica Cheri, who wrote the book and lyrics for “Wanted.” It was evident when Harris ran for president. And we heard that echo again during the midterms in the attacks directed at Georgia’s Keisha Lance Bottoms, who on Tuesday became the country’s first Black woman elected governor, at Penny Brown Reynolds, who became Georgia’s first female secretary of state, and others.
The culture war fires the Clarke sisters walked through more than a century ago still burn. The temptation is to fixate on the destruction that fire leaves in its wake. But the resolve of Mary and Martha Clarke is a reminder that fire can also forge leaders.
Consider: After November 2024, one of the biggest questions following the election asked who now led the Democratic Party. In early 2025, as the Trump administration ran roughshod over the other two branches of government, progressives were frustrated by what appeared to be rudderless, if not cowardly, representation from elected officials, all while conservatives insisted, “I didn’t vote for this.” As immigration officers began terrorizing, arresting and sometimes killing Americans, voters increasingly started looking after each other in their own communities, helping strangers now neighbors.
Call Tuesday a “blue wave” if you must. But given how deep the rejection of Trump’s policies ran in red parts of the country, Tuesday’s results feel like a reflection of something outside politics altogether. Much in the same way in 2016, when more than 200 counties that twice voted for President Obama flipped for Trump.
Politics alone is not the answer here. Red meat is usually a safe bet on the campaign trail. However, what has been driving pollsters crazy as of late is how much of the red meat crosses over. Issues such as affordable housing, grocery bills, healthcare and gas prices are not the concerns of conservatives or progressives, but of people. The much-talked-about Republican plan to redraw the congressional map failed because one cannot redistrict hardship out of people’s lives. The desperation of choosing between rationing lifesaving prescriptions and putting food on the table isn’t something a color feels — red or blue, Black or white. It’s something a people experiences.
At its core, that is the story of the election: Americans looking past what separates and voting for what rang true about their own lives. Doing that led to the seismic shift in governance, and ideally away from the cruelty of the past two years.
Mary and Martha Clarke had to pretend to be someone else to survive a country that didn’t want them. On Tuesday, 92% of Black female voters who were born in that same fire didn’t have to be someone else to feel wanted.
America finally voted like it.
YouTube: @LZGrandersonShow
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