I just saw this incredible play that's set in South Africa and deals with issues of oppression and power dynamics and race and gender - honestly, it was one of the most powerful productions I've seen in a long time.
Afterwards, the cast did a Q&A with the audience, and at the end, this older white man raised his hand and asked if the cast was concerned about the play being too difficult for people to relate to, and whether all of the issues of oppression were really necessary, because wouldn't it be better if it focused more on the relationships and the adultery that take place in the show - those are issues that everyone can relate to!
The cast members, and most of us in the audience, were somewhat baffled by this question - the entire play was about exposing and exploring the complexities of oppression and power, yet here this white man was, asking for the play to be about him instead.
What was most confusing to me was that the man didn't even seem to think his question was odd or problematic, nor did many of the white men in the audience. It was as though this white male, someone used to seeing people like himself everywhere he looks, was personally offended that this play, a play about people who rarely if ever get to see their struggles represented, didn't cater to him. And then I realized something about white men (well cishet, able-bodied, neurotypical, white men):
They are so used to the whole world being a mirror that, when they are presented with a window into somebody else's world, they can't focus on what's through it because they are too busy searching in the glass for their own reflection.