big-block-of-cheese-day:

While writing the play [“Straight White Men”] in 2014, Lee ended up interviewing dozens of straight white men and relying on a workshop of diverse college students. She asked them to vent about straight white men — and then asked them how they would like straight white men to behave. “Everyone at the workshop was like: ‘I want a straight white man to sit down and shut up. I want him to take a back seat, to take a supporting role. I don’t want him to be aggressive,’ ” she recalled. “ ‘I want him to listen. I don’t want him taking the head role or the biggest job or to be going after the biggest stuff. I want him in a supporting role to me.’ ”

But when she created a character according to these specifications, she was shocked to find that the workshop participants hated him. “I realized that the reason they hated him was — despite all their commitment to social justice — what they believed in most was not being a loser.”

- NYT