Lola Dutchman

“I mean if I murdered you, then other white people would begin to understand me. You understand?” Baraka (p.9, 1964). Irony is great in view of the fact that it creates such a lasting impact. Amari Baraka’s Dutchman is not only exemplifies irony in the script, but it deriving criticism from the audiences as promoting hatred of whites may be more ironic than the play itself. So how can a white woman murdering a black man in public aview not be promoting hatred toward whites? Many people prefer to think of themselves as tolerant, progressive, intelligent and as a result this sometimes creates a sense of superiority. With a self inflated sense of superiority and human beings inability to self reflect, characters similar to Lula from Dutchman are partially real. Lula presents herself in a way that would have the audience believe she thinks of herself as someone who could never be considered a racist. What Lula has become, in her pursuit of not being considered racist, has in fact made her racist. Lula presents herself as having an upper hand on Clay from the moment she engages with him. Clay proceeds to explain in great detail that she is but a charlatan, resulting in her once perceived

Lula dominates the beginning of the plays conversation, spewing sharp, caustic words directly in Clay’s face, only to have him finally break in glorious exposition. Clay is right to criticise Lula and those of her kind attempting to sympathise with the plight of black Americans, all while still acting superior and only superficially embracing black America. Clay points out that the pieces of black culture embraced by progressive whites expresses the disdain and pain that black Americans experienced. Embracing black culture, such as the blues was cool however to not understand what is truly being expressed makes the Lula’s of the world