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In Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman, the binary between black and white people embeds itself into the characters on the subway. Lula, who incorporates her image with control and deception through her white skin, represents one significant driving force. Clay, who faces manipulation from the oppressive white presence of Lula and the others on the train, has to step up and become an opposing force. Throughout these characters transformations from individuals to powers, they express a combination of double consciousness and self-consciousness to reveal their true identities.
The majority of the play focuses on the double-consciousness aspect using actions like looking, stereotyping, and seducing. For example, the initial interaction between Lula and Clay involves looking at each other through the subway window. While the word looking suggests an innocent, even friendly demeanor, Lula interjects her own interpretation to Clay, saying “But only after I’d turned around and saw you staring through that window down in the vicinity of my legs and ass” (Baraka 7; italics mine). Lula’s use of the word staring adds a dimension of judgment to the action, turning what was a harmless gesture into a more intense and seductive exploit. Another perspective on this scene comes from Nita Kumar’s essay, “The Logic of Retribution: Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman”, in which he interprets Lula’s beginning dialogue as “[it] begins to hint, very obtrusively, at the hiatus between “being” and “looking” and later, “’Looking,’ both in its active sense of ‘seeing’ and ‘perceiving’ and in its passive sense of ‘appearing’ forms a central preoccupation of this play” (Kumar 5). Using his interpretation, another binary between the real individual and the perceived mask arises, whi...
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...yclic pattern has been established with the presence of the type being reinforced by the second young black man. Lula, who loses her stature and must regain not only composure but her whole sense of identity, sets up herself to replay the stereotyping over again. Her identity is false, ever-changing, and never accountable, whereas Clay loses his life over embracement of his identity. By exploiting Clay through double-consciousness and using the others on the train as props, self-consciousness must take over to form remainders of identities that have long been forgotten to Lula. Through preservation of culture and the realization of individuality, Clay maintains his identity throughout death.
Works Cited
Baraka, Amiri. Dutchman. New York: Harper Perennial, 1964.
Kumar, Nita N. "The Logic of Retribution: Amiri Baraka's Dutchman." African American Review (2003): 9.
Buckman, Adam. “Following Footsteps of a Killer.” New York Post (Nov. 2002): 124: Proquest. Web. 28 Feb. 2014
Solberg, Muriel. “’Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?’ – Rodney King”. 27 May 2011.
Harper, Frederick D. “The Influence of Malcolm X on Black Militancy.” Journal of Black Studies 1 (June 1971): 387-402.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s Impasse in Race Relations is a speech that confronts the audience of the past, present, and future aspects of race relations. The speech addressed by King refers to an impasse as a situation in which there is no escapes or progresses. In the speech, King reveals the different feelings and reasoning’s as to what Negroes have experienced and dealt with. He also shares and interprets various violent and non-violent approaches to racial problems. In this essay, I will present my thoughts and opinions based on King’s ideas introduced in his speech.
---. “White Man’s Guilt.” 1995 James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998: 722-727.
I think this play is a lot about what does race mean, and to what extent do we perform race either onstage or in life:
The above-mentioned essays are: Nihilism in Black America, The Pitfalls of Racial Reasoning, The Crisis of Black Leadership, Demystifying the Black Conservatism, Beyond Affirmative Action: Equality and Identity, On Black-Jewish Relations, Black Sexuality: T...
Karenga, Malauna. Introduction to Black Studies. Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press Third Edition, 2002.
Berstein, R. (2007). “Racial Discrimination or Righting Past Wrongs?” in Justice: A Reader. 237-240. Ed. Sandel, M. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 237.
Kennedy, Randall. “You Can’t Judge a Crook by His Color” Dialogues 7th ed. Eds. Gary
Rawls, J. (1999). A Theory of Justice (Rev. ed.). Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Troutt, David D. "Unreasonable and the Black Profile." Los Angeles Times. 5 March 2000, p.m6
Blum, Lawrence. I'm Not A Racist But: The Moral Quandary of Race. New York: Cornell University Press, 2002. 5
In the 1964 play Dutchman by Amiri Baraka, formally known as Le Roi Jones, an enigma of themes and racial conflicts are blatantly exemplified within the short duration of the play. Baraka attacks the issue of racial stereotype symbolically through the relationship of the play’s only subjects, Lula and Clay. Baraka uses theatricality and dynamic characters as a metaphor to portray an honest representation of racist stereotypes in America through both physical and psychological acts of discrimination. Dutchman shows Clay, an innocent African-American man enraged after he is tormented by the representation of an insane, illogical and explicit ideal of white supremacy known as Lula. Their encounter turns from sexual to lethal as the two along with others are all confined inside of one urban subway cart. Baraka uses character traits, symbolism and metaphor to exhibit the legacy of racial tension in America.
de Zayas, Alfred. "Nelson Mandela." Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Ed. Dinah L. Shelton. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 11 Mar. 2012.