The Dutchman

¶ … Dutchman," a play written by Amiri Baraka, an African-American writer who was a strong supporter of the Black Nationalism movement in the 1960s, is a parody of the way people or race -- and ethnicity -- is treated in America. Prejudice is thought to be non-existent, but it is alive and well practiced in a covert manner with implicit rather than explicit prejudice occurring. When explicit prejudice does occur, bystanders prefer to look away and ignore the spectacle making them immune to its occurrence. This is what happened on the train between Lula and Clay where Lula eventually kills Clay and is moving onto her next prey, but the other passengers pretend to be immune to the spectacle.

I found the play striking with Lula the protagonist approaching Clay, a Black man in a sexual come-on, where she starts off by being flirtatious, bending over him and trying to engage him in flirtatious communication. She shifts to ridiculing him on his clothes and telling him that he is not really Black because he is educated, wears a three-button suit and because his "grandfather was not a slave" She further infuriates Clay by dancing in the train and ridiculing him by asking him to join her and "do the nasty. Rub bellies." Clay yells at the other passengers, retorting to Lula that she knows nothing about him, and calling her and the other riders " ofays'. He forces her on the seat next to him, slaps her twice, and comments that the neuroses of black man can be cured only with the murder of White people, specially with the murder of Lula. He then apologizes and prepares to take his leave. Whilst Clay is bending down to pick up his books, Lula stabs him in front of the others who do nothing to stop the attack. They then help her toss the body off the train and get off the subway at the next stop. Lulu moves on to her next victim, another Black man dressed in a similar style. In the meantime's, the train conductor enters the compartment, dancing a 'soft shoe' movement.

The story can be interrelated in numerous ways. It may tell us something about the troublesome times in which we live where people are apathetic to violence, not only that that is perpetrated to race but to any wrong or injustice that is committed in their sight. They simply do not wish to be involved. Although the play portrayed a Black as victim of this violence, it seems to be that apathy to injustice in general is a component of our times. This impression is reinforced by the fact that it wasn't only White people who watched the crime. Black people were spectators too. All watched and participated in throwing the body overboard. None did anything to prevent it.

Secondly, the play may reflect too on the arbitrary response to crime in our society. Women, by virtue of their gender, are oftentimes the ones who are least frequently punished even thoguh they may be conspicuously responsible for their crimes. Society has a tendency to forgive woman more readily than it does man. This may not have been the lesson of the drama, but it certainly reminded me of this fact.

In another way, I find the story unsettling in that it indicates how oftentimes the minority person is punished solely by virtue of his being a different color, or looking different in some way (Editors of Salem Press). It is not only the different color that causes punishment and social penalization. Other external, such as age, handicap, and looks can penalize one too. These are externals as Clay points out to Lula: "You really don't know anything about me." Meaning: You don't know anything about the real me. You are judging me according to facts or myths that you mentally construct upon. The real 'me' slips by you unexamined and ignored. This may be a lesson to those who engage in stereotypes. Doing so is harmful not only to victim but also to perpetrator since the perpetrator ends up drawing irrational and often faulty conclusions, slipping a deceptive mask onto the victim when the real 'me' -- the personality of the victim could have accorded the perpetrator numerous benefits had he only avoided the stereotype.

The drama can also provide a message to minorities who attempt to fit in with the White people around them (or with the dominant race) at the risk of toppling their heritage and racial values. The message that Lula imparts loud and strong is that one can never succeed in brushing off one's heritage and roots. Whether rightly or wrongly, people inevitably categorize the other according to such externals and, therefore, rather than concealing them, the person of minority race should embrace his race and proudly accept it for what it is.