Racism Doesn’t Have a Safe Word

In Jeremy O. Harris’s provocative Slave Play, three interracial couples seem to be acting out master-slave sex fantasies, though we soon realize they’re taking part in an elaborate healing ritual called Antebellum Sexual Performance Therapy. This approach not only fails to heal their rifts, it exposes fresh layers of personal conflict—though some understandings are ultimately reached. Harris spoke with Tonya Pinkins, the Tonywinning star of Caroline, or Change, about the play and about the intense controversy it stirred.

TONYA PINKINS: Can you tell me about the joke that set this play in motion?

So I was at a party, and this very liberal man was talking about the pleasure he was getting from a woman who demanded the roughest sex he’d ever engaged in. Everyone was just talking about it casually, and I was like: This is so weird. I was like, “I want to play this thought experiment with you. You identify as a male feminist, right?” And he was like, “Yes.” And I was like, “Great. Now if she was Black, would you feel as comfortable telling all of us about this in this way?” And the entire energy in the room changed immediately and he was like, “Uh…”