Exploring Racism and Societal Stereotypes in Amiri Baraka's Dutchman

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Amiri Baraka's play, Dutchman, focusing on the pervasive theme of racism. The essay examines the complex relationship between the characters Clay and Lula, highlighting the societal stereotypes and power dynamics at play. It explores the influence of historical figures like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. on Baraka's portrayal of the African American experience and the struggle for racial equality. The analysis delves into the themes of identity, violence, and the challenges faced by African Americans in a society marked by white supremacy. The essay also discusses the play's ending and its implications for the African American community's pursuit of acceptance and equality. The play is analyzed in the context of the Civil Rights Movement and the contrasting ideologies of its leaders. The essay also looks at how the play challenges the audience to confront the uncomfortable realities of racism and its lasting impact.

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Date: 11/04/2020
Racism in Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman
The fight against racism merged in the interwar years and was the result of the denial
in the acknowledgement of equality that was granted to them by the constitution. However,
there was two most prominent division in the movement of the time, depending on the
approach of the two most imminent leaders of the time, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King
Jr. The play Dutchman was the production of an African American author Amiri Baraka, who
wrote under the name of LeRoi Jones till the year 1964 and this was the last play to be
published under his original name (Naghavi Moghaddam). The paper will analyze Lula’s
character under the scope of the White supremacy which is challenged and upto a certain
point silenced by Clay’s abrupt eruption on her vulgarity showing the perception of the white
society towards Blacks who were finally equipped to have a voice of their own. It depicts the
condition of the society and the stereotype as a new form of slavery that they were subjected
to even after being freed from it physically. The stance of Clay represents adherence to the
thinking of Martin Luther King Jr. in terms of taking a non-violence approach towards
handling the issue of racism but when seen through the eyes of the reader’s one can see the
influence of Malcolm X on Baraka. The thesis statement stands for the analysis of the stance
of Cay in terms of depicting the response one can expect from the society when they wait for
the change to occur rather than putting an effort to bring one.

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Racism and Baraka
The play starts in a subway with the lone character who is also the protagonist of the play;
Clay represents a coming of age African American who represents the class of African
American who had the opportunity of a college education. He sat at the window seat, reading
from his pile of papers and looking outside the window with a strange look. Lula stands in the
way a hunter stands until the appropriate hunt comes in the view (Tyner). Lula looks at Clay
looking at her and returns the gesture. The significant part of the play is the manipulation
game of Lula and the way she extracts information from him, and she shows her amiable side
to him until he gets manipulated and dance to her tune.
The first scene of the play shows the side of Amiri that was influenced by Martin
Luther King Jr., which shows Clay being in a trance phase. Lula shows the reaction of a
person who has been intrigued, and she excites him sexually to make him respond to her
questions. The goal of the Civil Rights Movement reflects here when Lula tries to depict the
fact that she knows him or his type. She reads him under the stereotype where delegates his
existence into set rules of the thumb and declares that as he cannot be Jackson or Johnson, he
must be William. She gave the reason behind her choice being, “You are too pretentious to be
a Jackson or a Johnson.” (Baraka). It can be seen as an attack on the movement and the
ideology where Jackson and Johnson were both a front activist of the movement. The
movement called for a non-violence, and civil disobedience approach based on the Christian
beliefs and was largely due to the influence of the Indian Freedom Movement leader
Mahatma Gandhi. She calls them pretentious due to their demand for being equally treatment
removing the biases of race and color of their skin. She mocks him on his choice of poetry
when he tells her about his obsession with Baudelaire by calling him ‘Black Baudelaire’
(Baraka).

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The Civil Rights Movement. The play was first published in the year 1964, and Malcolm X
was assassinated just a year later. The movement was seen under two macroscopic categories
in the year the 1950s and 1960s due to the division of the approach in which the movement
was divided. Malcolm X was a convert who took to the religion of Islam and its teaching
under the guidance of Elijah Muhammad of the organization, ‘The Nation of Islam’ where he
became the representative speaker for it (Tyner). Their ideology was in stark contrast to that
of the Martin Luther King Jr., who led the movement with the non-violent approach and the
method of civil disobedience.
In contrast, Malcolm X was a huge supporter of the Islamic fundamental of being
allowed retaliation under defense. This ideology is reflected in turmoil present in the play
within the protagonist. He stays calm and tolerate the promiscuous advances of Lula towards
himself but was forced to defend himself when she calls him Uncle Tom and Thomas Woolly
Head in his incompetence to maintain his own identity. She calls out in front of all the people
in the train and insults him by calling him ‘an escaped nigger’ and points the various ways in
which he has accepted and mimicked the ways of the White people in his dressing as well as
in the manner he speaks including his language (Baraka).
The derogatory terms and the list of elicit words thrown at him show the
condemnation by Baraka of the non-violent ideology. Her use of the term, “You would-be
Christian.” shows the direct condemnation from him of how the ideology does stand in the
way of fighting the discriminating actions meted out to them (Baraka). Again, the thematic
reading reveals the inclination of Baraka towards Malcolm X’s ideology of considering
Christianity as the religion of the whites which has been re-written by them to make the
blacks the slave of their customs. They believed that the non-violence teachings of
Christianity were meant to keep the god-fearing African-American community under their
control (Baker). The nation of Islam exerted on the understanding that there was an urgent

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need to push back the hand that was pushing them, to stand for the community and give it the
voice that has been taken away from them (Naghavi Moghaddam). The organization
supported and encouraged the African American community to rise against the violence and
pain they were thrust to and to rise and defend themselves. The Islamic ideology demanded
that the victim is equally responsible for the suppression unless he raises against the
suppressor. However, in his lifetime, in the end, history shows Malcolm X’s changing
perspective for King (Sørensen). When he went to meet King’s wife, he declared that he
wanted to convey to the conformists that the substitution for King’s approach was his and
that would help his cause.
The Strangeness of the Play. The play shows the distinctive property of belonging to the
category of work which forces one to see two sides of the same scenarios. The conforming
quality of Clay represents the civil disobedience in its basic form, where he allows the action
to unfold. In the process, he is manipulated into taking part in it. At the beginning of the play,
the readers can become impatient at the constant pressure on accepting that Clay was staring
at her even though the narrative clarifies that he was looking out at the window irrespective
of what was outside. The strangeness in Lula’s character can be seen as the reaction of the
fact that a black man was travelling in the medium and has the right to sit at the same level as
them. She forces him to accept that he was looking at her sexually when he was simply
confused and intrigued by the way Lula was standing and looking at him (Baker). Here, one
can make the appeal in which retaliation or strong rebuttal was required by him to make sure
that she cannot manipulate him.
The manipulation by Lula can also be seen as her assertion of the fact that he was still
a slave psychologically who could not stand long enough in front of her accusations. The
character of Lula stands for the symbol of the White society, which was hated by Malcolm X
and Baraka being highly influenced him reflects the same essence in the play. When he

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stands up against her constant attacks and the way everyone in the train stood looking around
when she insulted him. It was only Lula who was insulting her, but when Clay erupts, we see
his anger directed at every single person present. He lays down the information that he was
not weak as claimed and accused by Lula; and had it in him to snap and tear them like a piece
of paper, but he would rather not. He simply wanted them to let him be as he wanted to be
and in him, we can see the reflection of Eliot’s words, “There will be time, there will be time.
To prepare the face to meet the faces you meet.” (Eliot). The appeal in his voice to let him be
the ‘little white-man’ if he wants to be is the cry for accepting him as the part of the society
(Baraka).
Conclusion
The essay shows the portrayal of the influence Malcolm X has on him and the similarity of
hatred towards the white society and the image of them they shared. Lula and the people in
the train who witnessed the abuse hurling incident and the murder in front of their eyes and
the way they conformed to her action by helping in getting rid of Clay’s body. Clay’s last
words were still of acceptance of their behavior because he wanted to be a part of their
society, and he was willing to turn his eyes away from their discrimination. His fate is the
depiction of the fate of people from the African American community who were waiting for
the White society to grow a conscience and accept them.

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Works-Cited
Baker, Christopher. “A Trip with the Strange Woman: Amiri Baraka's ‘Dutchman’ and the
Book of Proverbs.” South Atlantic Review, vol. 78, no. 3/4, 2013, pp. 110–128. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/43739218. Accessed 11 Apr. 2020.
Baraka, Amiri. "Dutchman". Faculty.Atu.Edu, 2020,
https://faculty.atu.edu/cbrucker/Engl2013/texts/Dutchman.pdf.
Eliot, Thomas Sterns. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot | Poetry
Magazine". Poetry Magazine, 2020,
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/44212/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-
prufrock.
Naghavi Moghaddam, Reza. "Rise Of Black Man: The Influences Of Malcolm X On Amiri
Baraka". Academia.Edu, 2018,
https://www.academia.edu/37498059/Rise_of_Black_Man_The_Influences_of_Malcolm_X_
on_Amiri_Baraka. Accessed 11 Apr 2020.
Sørensen, Bent. “Dissent as Race War: The Strange Case of Amiri Baraka.” Dissent!
Refracted: Histories, Aesthetics and Cultures of Dissent, edited by Ben Dorfman, Peter Lang
AG, Frankfurt Am Main, 2016, pp. 77–94. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2t4dpq.6.
Accessed 11 Apr. 2020.

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Tyner, James A. “Placing ‘the South’ in the Geopolitical Thought of Malcolm
X.” Southeastern Geographer, vol. 56, no. 1, 2016, pp. 45–56. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/26233771. Accessed 11 Apr. 2020.