Protest and Fences Racism and Racial Prejudices

Protest and Fences

Racism and racial prejudices have many forms, some more obvious than others. For people who are part of the minority population, there will be some level of bias when it comes to hiring practices or other benefits. African-Americans for example had to deal with racism, even if it was not understood by the perpetrators to be racism, in nearly every aspect of their daily lives. Some prejudicial beliefs are so accepted in the social makeup that they become ingrained in the national psyche and are not questioned as being either true or false. The biases of those in positions of authority led to situations where African-Americans were hindered and prevented from achieving their own happiness as promised by the mythos of the American Dream. President Lyndon Johnson, in a speech to Congress, declared that the government of the United States of America had pledged to each person regardless of gender or skin color to protect their civil liberties and ensure that each citizen of the United States had the same opportunities, a promise that was not being kept because of the institutionalized racism in the nation (Johnson 369). Literature as an art form is used to express the feelings and emotions of the underrepresented. In Fences, the heartbreaking oppression of the white majority forces the African-American protagonist to experience frustration and anger which culminates in his desire to separate himself and his family from the rest of the world. When he realizes that he can never escape the oppression of white society, he dies with a heart hardened by years of racism and bias inherent in the social landscape.

August Wilson's play Fences deals with the inherent suppression of people which comes with institutionalized racism. The most prominent example of this question has to do with the very real issue that African-Americans confront when dealing with employment. Even though the main character Troy Maxson has worked hard as a trash collector for many years, he has not been able to transcend his position into something more lucrative. Only after directly confronting his employer was Troy able to secure the chance to drive the truck. He told his boss, "Why you got the white mens driving and the colored lifting?...You think only white fellows got sense enough to drive a truck" (Wilson 9). The simple task of driving the trash truck had been the job of white men alone, despite the fact that many African-Americans were able to drive and many could do so with better skill than white men. Ability simply did not come into the equation. When Troy asks his boss these questions, the reader understands that the boss had no reason to deny Troy's request other than race and further that the boss had more than likely never even considered hiring a black truck driver. It was not that he was intentionally keeping African-Americans in subservient positions, but that so ingrained was the notion of inferiority that it never occurred to him to offer the position to an African-American man.

Troy has had to deal with racism his entire life, particularly as an adult. His true passion in life was baseball, but he was not able to move beyond the Negro League and thus could not support his family through the game. Since Troy's youth, the color barrier had been breached and in the present moment of the play, there were African-American ball players who played right alongside their white teammates. This knowledge rather than providing a sense of comfort to Troy instead seems to increase his anger. Troy's friend Bono says, "Times have changed, Troy. You just come along too early" (Wilson 14). In both these scenarios it is apparent that the psychology of the masses of the United States at the time valued African-Americans less than they did white people. It was assumed that white men could operate garbage trucks and black men could not, just as it was assumed that African-Americans playing baseball was not as entertaining as white men playing the game and thus those employed as players did not deserve the same salary.

Passivity and lack of aggression did not help Troy in his cause. Only through acts of anger and confrontation was he able to better his situation in life. Another example of this has to do with Troy's manipulation of his physically damaged son. Gabriel had gotten a head wound while in the military and consequently received money from the government. Troy took this money in order to purchase himself and his wife a house. He would never have been able to afford this luxury if he had not taken Gabriel's money. The racial biases of his community put him into the position where in order to rise above his station and become a homeowner, he needed to perform an action which was not ethical and violated the trust of his handicapped son. African-Americans in the United States are faced with a slow destruction of themselves because of the attitudes of the white majority. James Baldwin describes this in "My Dungeon Shook" when he writes of his brother, "I know, which is worse, and there is the crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen, and for which neither I nor time nor history will ever forgive them, that they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it" (343). It is not Troy who is to blame for his unethical choices, but the society into which he has been born.