“When Racism Can’t Be Ignored”

“Ms. Wiest, 66, said that she took this role in part “to explore my own latent racism.” This has not been easy. Ms. Pinkins, 52, who had joined the cast “to be in the room with Cynthia and Dianne,” was also finding the work difficult. Though she said that she experiences racism “probably at some point every single day,” she’d long since learned to shrug it off.

The play doesn’t allow that. She has to access her anger, her vulnerability. “To really do this character well I have to reveal the part of myself that I spend most of my life suppressing,” Ms. Pinkins said.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/theater/rasheeda-speaking-stars-tonya-pinkins-and-dianne-wiest.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below

This sounds like an interesting/terrifying process – I wonder if it is ultimately healthy? Or, like, it should be healthy but it needs to be done in a really safe space and also what do you do afterwards? How do you then interact with a world that doesn’t recognize that process?