this one cara/whitney scene in 1x08 was improvised from nizhonniya's perspective as an indigenous person and emma and dave strongly advocated for it being in the show. it is production decisions like this- centering marginalized voices- that made the curse so painfully accurate (/pos).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxcUaV-TFPg&t=2s

EDIT: by "centering marginalized voices," i mean that the producers rightfully made marginalized peoples active participants in shaping the way in which their experiences with oppression were represented in the show by directly inputting their perspectives and actually honoring their views rather than, as five well off white people, going "this is how the narrative will be" without asking a single person they're representing what their perspective is or what they feel is important to highlight. or "consulting" them to pretend they care only to not actually implement their suggestions. i know the three main characters were obviously the ones with the most screen time.

if you recall, near the end of 1x08, cara explains the meaning of her art demonstration in which she slices meat and offers it to a crowd largely comprised by affluent white liberals. it is a pivotal scene in that it is cara explicitly calling out whitney and everyone like her for their performative activism and how exploitative it really is. it was revealed during the panel emma, nathan, benny, nizhonniya, and dave did for episodes 8 and 9- starts at 3:05 of the linked video if you're interested in hearing them all talk about it- and it just made me think about how the reason the experiences of oppressed peoples and the deplorable actions of performative white liberals (PWLs 😭) are all so pitch-perfect as it pertains to the dynamics that truly occur in society is because the producers of this show were actively centering the perspectives and experiences OF people on the receiving end of marginalization rather than approaching it from what would inevitably be a lens of white privilege were they to have not integrated these perspectives.

emma actually goes on to say (starts at 12:20) that the interactions between whitney and cara, that represent the power dynamics of oppression between white liberals and bipoc, are single-handedly the most important part of the show and defining of whitney's true self in that her bigotry and performativity are inherent in every interaction she has with cara. i think this is a profound statement attesting to how emma and the others had a genuine objective to condemn what is so often ignored or even championed in society- or in other words, actually regarding PWLs as bad people rather than the heroes they pretend to be- and it's a shame their peers in hollywood do not follow suit. in any case, as a black social epidemiologist who is so used to society treating PWLs as angels on earth, this unapologetic interrogation of their true nature presented in a brilliant manner means everything to me. it goes without saying but the curse is indeed my favorite show of all time and i've been a fan of and respected emma for years but her work on this show amplified those sentiments tenfold.