www.buzzfeednews.com: A Broadway audience was stunned on Friday night when a white woman jumped from her seat and accused a black, gay playwright of being "racist against white people."
Jeremy O. Harris was taking questions in the packed theater following a performance of Slave Play, his new play that's been called provocative, uncomfortable, and thought-provoking. Its story focuses on three interracial couples who are struggling with their sex lives and take part in an Antebellum master-slave role-playing therapy workshop to try and fix their issues.
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Everything about this interaction is complicated. Because on the one hand, O. Harris' play is obviously sparking controversy and anger and the conversation that he originally wanted. On the other hand, rather than it being a positive conversation about change and differences it is a heated and accusatory one that seems to be dividing rather than unifying its viewers. While it's good that this woman does not identify with the white, supposedly racist (I don't know if they are as I'm unfamiliar with the play) characters, it's unfortunate that seeing this work made her feel as if her experiences were invalid. Some of the Twitter comments irked me. While her outburst may not have been elegant or polite at least it showed that she condemned the behavior that was antagonized in this work. Some of the Twitter comments poked fun at her pain with things like "Damn even Slave Play had to sit through Thanksgiving Dinner." These kinds of comments are neither constructive nor seeking to understand where she is coming from. She desperately did not want to be associated with what was displayed not just because she felt it didn't represent her but because she probably wishes that everyone's struggles could be viewed as valid. Personally, I think her argument came from a place of wishing for compassion among people with differences and at its core it was a cry for equality which is exactly what O. Harris wanted to promote.
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