Do I Have the Right to be Offended?

I am SM for a local ballet production of Porgy & Bess. The story is about what it meant to be black on Gulla Island in the Charleston area. It's not a happy show but has some wonderful moments. The opera was the first all black opera and cast on Broadway in the 1930s. However, it was written by two Jewish guys and white guy from Charleston. Interesting, huh?

My problem with this ballet is that neither Porgy nor Bess is black and there are 3 black dancers (two of whom are characters who are killed) in the company. Even the band is all white. So, I don't know how I feel about a bunch of privileged white girls dancing in a show about something that they could never empathize with. I guess that's why it's acting of a sorts. They are playing characters and expressing themselves through their bodies. Am I overreacting? Does it matter? And do I have the right to be offended since I, too, have no idea what it might be like to be a black person in the South in the 20s?

I'll have to think some more about it.