The Rockettes
Controversies
The Rockettes were created in 1925, but the first East Asian Rockette, a Japanese-born woman named Setsuko Maruhashi, was not hired until 1985. The Rockettes did not allow dark-skinned dancers into the dance line until 1987. The justification for this policy was that such women would supposedly distract from the consistent look of the dance group. The first African American Rockette was Jennifer Jones; she made her debut in 1988. The first person with a visible disability hired by the Rockettes (Sydney Mesher, missing a left hand due to symbrachydactyly), was hired in 2019.
The Rockettes-5