Racial Biases In A Streetcar Named Desire Essay

Race depicts an immoral bias towards people who are not part of the majority, causing a division of power, wealth, and influence throughout society. In A Streetcar Named Desire, by playwright Tennessee Williams, race is depicted as a hindrance on one’s appearance and is viewed negatively by the rest of society. When Blanche comes to visit her sister, Stella, from Belle Reve, she brings her racial biases and her ‘Southern belle’ ideology with her. This perspective makes her view different races as a lower class than herself and inferior to the ‘white’ people of society. Not only is this unethical, but it shows that people of a higher-class look down upon those of a different race. In A Streetcar Named Desire race is closely intertwined with

class and those of a different ethnicity than ‘white’ are looked down upon in society and are regarded as lower class citizens from a sociological perspective; as seen in the overall atmosphere and outlook of the people living in New Orleans and Blanches’ interactions with different ethnicities.
Race dictates where in the social spectrum an individual belongs and where they are placed based on the perspective of others. In A Streetcar Named Desire Stella and Stanley are situated in a low-income district of New Orleans and live in a small complex referred to as ‘Elysian Fields.’ Many racial figures transition in and out of ‘Elysian Fields’ throughout the play and this demonstrates that the intermingling of lower income citizens and racial citizens is extremely common and routine. This can be seen when Williams says, “New Orleans is a cosmopolitan city where there is a relatively warm and easy intermingling of races in the old part of town” (3). This quote illustrates how casual the interaction between ethnic and low-income citizens is and that this demographic does not have the same racial bias as the upper class does, and thus does not oppress the minority in the same way. Unfortunately, the racial oppression and segregation from the upper class does not have limitations to just blacks. Due to the racial oppression many races were forced to hold blue-collar jobs, which pay far less and are substantially less influential. This can be seen with Blanche’s interaction with the flower girl who is portrayed as Mexican selling “flowers for the dead” (Williams 147). This interaction shows how a woman of a different race (Mexican) is working an extremely low paying job because she is not portrayed equally in society due to her race and thus is considered to be of a lower class. In A Streetcar Named Desire and in the present day of the play, (late 1940s) the heavily influential French culture was pumping through the heart of New Orleans and many racial figures, especially blacks, felt it an opportune time to establish themselves as a class. In doing so they picked up music and became known for operating in these lower income jobs. This is evident when Williams says, “[t]he Negro entertainers around the corner are heard” (147). This quote highlights how segregation is still a very prominent subject in the Southern areas of America and that racial groups will generally congregate into a similar class because of the racial bias imposed on them from old generational traditions. Overall, it is evident that years of oppression, segregation, and misjudgment has lead to many ethnicities being regarded as lesser because of nothing other than their background. This has driven a wedge between classes and forced many aspiring workers into lower paying blue collar jobs without choice just because of the way they are regarded by others.
People’s racial biases stick them throughout their life and the environment they were raised in impacts their view on others. Blanche comes from a historically biased state of Mississippi, which oppressed and segregated blacks and other races throughout the 50s and 60s. When Blanche visits the Kowalski residence, it is like a fish out of water; she feels very out of place. When some social friction builds between Blanche and Stanley, Blanche sets off Stanley because of her racial biases and derogatory remarks when she says,
“You healthy Polack, without a nerve in your body, of course you don’t know what anxiety feels like!”
“I am not a Polack […] I am one hundred percent American, born and raised in the greatest country on earth and proud as hell of it, so don’t ever call me a Polack” (Williams 134).
This quote shows that people would much rather be regarded as American-born or better known as ‘white’ than a racial derogatory term.

This derives from the fact that people of a different race getting categorized as lesser, which Stanley does not want, especially from Blanche. This quote also shows how Blanche continues to bring her prejudice and judgment with her from Belle Reve into a completely different environment in which she is of the majority from a socioeconomic perspective. Blanche has been placed out of her element and the new environment can be strenuous for people who are not acquainted with the role race and class plays in a different demographic. When Blanche is being escorted with the doctor out of the Kowalski residence she says, “[w]hoever you are- I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” (Williams 178). This quote is not directed at anyone in the Kowalski residence, or anyone directly around Blanche. Instead this quote accurately depicts how Blanche is in this setting of an easy and relaxed intermingling of races and shows her lack of connection to the people of New Orleans and those who inhabit the city. This quote sums up how out of place Blanche is in a lower class filled with racial figures that someone of her socioeconomic perspective would usually segregate and thus exposes her racism and biased view of the past. It is evident that Blanche’s ‘Southern Belle’ perspective is a extremely racially and culturally biased opinion in the poorer districts of New Orleans. Blanche depicts all of the higher class citizens in New Orleans and shows how they would look down upon and disassociate themselves with other races because they view them as

lesser.
Overall, it is clear that A Streetcar Named Desire accurately shows how race plays an important role in understanding the culture present in New Orleans during the 1950s. Williams is able to use Blanche to depict how the upper class would view racial figures and to show how segregated the upper class would be from the lower class and the awkward interactions that ensue from forced intermingling. Without race in A Streetcar Named Desire there would be a missing piece in the puzzle and the whole fabrics of the play would be compromised. The play’s main setting, Elysian Fields, effectively shows how racial figures are easily integrated into the lower economic class of society and describes how upper class citizens would view such racial groups that they normally segregate because of their racist ideologies.