TABLE OF CONTENTS
Find The Universal... And Then Kill It Dead.
What white folks say: “I know you wrote the play with Black characters, but it’s so universal, so relatable.”
What I hear: “Wow, I didn’t know that Black people are actually people.”
This shit makes me a little crazy. Truly. It induces two conflicting feelings:
On the one hand, part of the reason I got into playwriting is to create bridges between underrepresented people like me and the mainstream. So, I guess when people tell me that they can relate to my characters despite not being Black or a woman or queer or fill-in-the-blank other, it’s a type of success.
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