Dutchman Amiri Baraka\'s Play, Dutchman,

Dutchman

Amiri Baraka's play, Dutchman, addresses the inevitability of racial stereotypes in American society. According to Baraka, assimilating into such a culture is a type of suicide, or at least a murder of one's own cultural identity. At its basis, his message to black people is "assimilate at your peril." Many also feel that this statement applies to other sectors of society, marginalized on the basis of paradigms such as sexual orientation, culture and religion. Indeed, it is true that, despite the fact that the United States has recently elected its first black president, many stereotypes and cases of prejudice remain. Cultural and religious groups experience hostility towards each other, and even in today's supposedly open-minded society, the right of homosexual people to marry each other remains a hotly contested issue. Racial prejudice has also seen a peak since the 9/11 attacks of 2001. Even security professionals, charged with ensuring the safety of all law-abiding citizens, have singled out certain cultural groups for increased surveillance and unlawful detention. It is little wonder then that Baraka's play still holds such power in today's America, which appears to require that minority groups either join the ideal of the "melting pot" or suffer discrimination. However, according to authors such as Chielozona Eze, there is a third option that involves neither assimilation nor hostility; a solution known as "transculturalism." Furthermore, the mass media appears to promote a movement away from general stereotyping of certain groups. The general cultural consciousness today appears much more tolerant of difference than it was some forty or fifty years ago. Although many incidents of prejudice still exist, it is also true that these are widely condemned rather than accepted by society in general. This offers some hope in terms of Baraka's generally negative views regarding his culture and its place in the United States.

Dutchman uses many symbolic references to the way in which the dominant white culture in the United States either oppresses or assimilates other cultures, or specifically the black culture in the play. Indeed, the title itself refers to the cultural memory of slavery. The idea of the slave ship drives the plot of the play. Slavery itself is implicated as the first attempt to assimilate Africans into the European culture, although this is as a subordinate sector of society.

The vehicle for Baraka's views is Clay, who is obliged to remain on the subway until his death. Clay's choice to board the subway is symbolic of his choice to assimilate into general American culture. This choice causes him to lose not only his identity during the course of the play, but also his life. Symbolically, Lula and the other passengers remove his body from the subway.

With this symbolic consideration of social phenomena, Baraka appears to imply that assimilation is both a lifelong and gradual process. It is insidious and apparently harmless, like the subway simply appearing to be a means of transport. However, it is a process that, once begun, can only end in death. Metaphorically, this "death" could be seen to refer to the death of Clay's self as a proud black man. This identity is stripped away until there is nothing left.

In the same way, assimilation strips away the individuality and power of culture, according to the implication of the play. In effect, the individual's culture dies, leaving only a shell that looks like a representative of the culture, but that has in fact been filled with the dominant culture. It is this assimilation against which Baraka rebels, and against which he calls his fellow authors and artists to rebel.

As mentioned above, Baraka's view is that American culture offers two options to minority cultures: assimilation or discrimination. In many ways, this is still the case in American culture. There are many cases where prejudice and discrimination remain in both public and professional life. Women for example experience discrimination in many forms in the workplace. Issues such as sexual harassment or the concept of the "glass ceiling" remain realities of life for women attempting to make their way in their various professions.

Gay rights are also an issue of regular discussion. This sector of society is so marginalized that many states by law do not allow them to marry each other. Instead, they are expected to practice their courting and dating rituals in what is described as a "normal" way. Even religion is used as a basis for this type of discrimination.

Indeed, despite many efforts to the contrary, discrimination is still very much a part of life for those who do not assimilate into mainstream society. This is Baraka's focus of rebellion. According to the author, black authors and artists are to unite against such discrimination by offering the world a culture that is unmarred by other influences. Anything else is the beginning of assimilation and ultimate cultural death, as symbolized by Clay. Indeed, his point is not difficult to understand. Certainly, the assimilation of a gay person into mainstream heterosexual life would mean the denial of his or her true sexual orientation. The assimilation of a Jew into Christian society would mean that he or she is no longer Jewish, but has become Christian.

However, some argue that assimilation and discrimination are not the only options when considering the nature of modern society. According to the author Chielozona Eze, there is a third possibility, particularly in terms of culture. Eze mentions the concept of transculturalism (Eze, 2005, p. 29), by means of which cultures do not assimilate each other, but rather adopt what they regard as useful elements of each other so that each might develop into a new type of culture. In this way, the core culture remains without denying beneficial influence from the culture of contact. Such transculturalism would also make tolerance easier, as members of each culture can recognize themselves in the mirror of the other.

This is a far friendlier and more tolerant type of meeting platform for cultures. Baraka's purist view is very much grounded in the historical resentment of Africa towards Europe for the injustice of slavery. Transculturalism on the other hand recognizes that no culture is more important or "better" than the other. Instead each can learn something valuable by communicating with the other. The same is true of religious groups, the genders, homosexual groups, and the like. All cultures and groups can learn from each other, adopting whatever symbols and elements please them while maintaining the core values of the original culture. In this way, tolerant interaction rather that resentment occurs.