thinking about dirk

dirk is a friendly white german guy, who nobody can really have anything against.
sure, he has his weaknesses, and in the play a couple of hefty ones are revealed, but great efforts have been made to show that he is a human fallible person who tries very hard to improve his ways. and he's in love with christie, a black lone parent. this is positive, right? hmm....

now, when i was creating dirk, i thought a lot about the relationships (friends, colleagues and partners) with white guys that i have had and i tried to recreate some of the emotions and conversations in him.
dirk is not a baddie.
he is just a white guy 'who doesn't know he's white'.

i did think about creating a character who was well aware of his ethnicity, of white privilege and his responsibility to challenge white supremacy. i came across a blog called 'ally work' while researching, and was very impressed by the discussions on it.
it's all very good, but this post on the importance of empathy caught my eye, and i recommend a read.

in the end though, i decided dirk needed to himself - not the person i wanted him to be (?!), so therefore he needed to be more representative of my experiences thus far.
i also think the character of dirk as he is provides dramatic tension and is someone with whom the audience will be more likely to identify with.

so what about white allies? apart from the passing reference to rita's ex-boyfriend (someone who 'knew he was white') they are not represented in otherpleasespecify.
it could be seen as a big omission.
or...thinking about my day-to-day life...maybe not...

i welcome feedback on how the character of dirk seems to you.
please let me know or post a comment below