Trauma Porn Chronicles Volume I

What is Slave Play? This a play that was produced at Yale University in October 2017, and won the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award and the Rosa Parks Play writing Award at the 2018 American College Theater Festival. The play was taken to off-Broadway at the New York Theater Workship under the direction of Robert O'Hara in 2018, Harris first professional production as playwright. The themes in the play are sexuality and racial sexual violence on a slave plantation in the American South and continues in the present-day America at a sex therapy retreat for interracial couples. The couples include black participants from their white partners. The white partners have a blind-spot about the role that race plays in their relationships.

Who is Jeremy O. Harris? Harris is from a military family, moving often before his family settled in Martinsville, Virginia. He has also lived in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. He also attended the Yale School of Drama for graduate school. He identifies as a black and gay man. He refers to himself as a tall, lanky, queer, and black.

The play has been met with much controversy and contempt from Black American society. Harris has made comments in regards to the outrage. Here is his statement below.

"Honestly, I thought that black people would give me the benefit of the doubt. I felt that if it was controversial with anyone, it will be controversial with white people in a very real way. I wasn't writing this play and thinking, "On I'm going to go up at one of the biggest off-Broadway theaters in the country," he continued. "You don't write a play like this and think that that's going to be what happens. You've gotta feel like you just couldn't think you're going to produce it yourself, you know? And so for me, that was where the real surprise came from-the act I didn't account for the fact that people wouldn't know me well enough to give me the benefit of the doubt, you know? Which is fair. It's completely fair."

                                                                                      Jeremy O. Harris

Slave Play has received  praise from Rihanna and the liberal Hollywood crowd and I find it disturbing. On her Instagram account she posted the following
"You already know how HYPE me and @illjahjah are for this right?! This is so special and incredibly important, can NOT be missed damn it! Proud of you man.

Jake Gyllenhaal's Nine Stories production company among one of the producers of the play.

Toni's Thoughts: I am disgusted by this play and I consider Jeremy O. Harris to be coward and a turncoat. He is scum for writing and bringing this filth to the stage. For him to think Black Americans would not be offended is utterly ridiculous. Slavery is a very important segment of Black and American history. However, it is not the only chapter in our story in regards to Black America. Although I want to see more content that displays the success and contributions of Black Americans. I want to see more documentaries and films about our scholars and ancient civilizations. But that does not mean I will ever ignore the atrocities we have endured with that being said. This play is smut. It portrays the enslaved Black men and women as sexual objects, makes mockery of this trauma, and it is very disturbing. There are the scenes in the play when an slave woman seduces the master by twerking, a slave owner engages in sex with a slave man and the man licks his boots. What the fuck is wrong Jeremy O. Harris, Rihanna, Robert O' Hara, and Jake Gyellnal? During slavery  Black men, women, and children were forced to provide free labor, forced to be separated from their families,  products of cannibalism, denied their humanity, and last not least they were forced to satisfy the sexual desire of slave masters, overseers, and their wives. It is no secret that Black women were raped by slave owners and overseers. But most people do not know or want to discuss the fact that Black boys and men were emasculated in various ways. 

The true origins of "sagging" does not come prison culture it actually comes from slavery. During slavery when a Black man attempted to asset himself and challenge the brutality of slavery he was beaten and raped. Additionally, then they would cut down a tree and force the battered male to lay down, be tied up, and the slave owner would remove his pants and savagely sodomize him in front of his wife, children, friends, etc. Slave masters would invite their associates to join in. The sons of defiant Black men were required to watch this as a warning. Once the violation ritual was complete the slave owner required the man to wear his pants below his bottom letting others know he was "Buck Broken." Yes, some of the slave owners were gay and they would participate in this violation ritual. White women also raped and violated Black  men and women. These things were done to assert power and prevent rebellion. It was also done to damage self-esteem.  This was also done to make Black men feel uncertainty about their manhood and protection abilities. "Buck breaking" was originally called "Butt Busting" and it was not limited to rape.  Black boys and men were sometimes required to wear dresses, earrings, and make-up. Buck breaking evolved into the "Sex Farm" on plantations. Slaves were put on display for the sexual desires of their slave masters both straight and gay. Let me be clear I am not speaking ill of anyone that is gay but I did want people to understand the full history and context of "Buck Breaking." With that being said do not support this smut. This play is not art it is outright disrespectful to a traumatic experience. Why hasn't the "MeToo" and "Time's Up" crowd boycotted this play? Why not have it removed? I just want people to think about that. There is no way to justify this play. It is clear that Jeremy O. Harris and the people supporting this are sick and twisted individuals. 

Sources
The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoerocticism Within US Slave Culture Vincent Woodard
Various Articles from The New York Times, GQ, and Vulture feature Jeremy O. Harris



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