Racial discrimination, segregation and inequality seem to have been constant areas of debate in American history, with a clear leaning towards suppression of blacks. This phenomenon persisted despite comprehensive changes in many other issues, most notably the abolishment of slavery. Because of their skin color and a law called the Jim Crow laws, blacks were told they were inferior to the whites in all ways, including the color of their skin, English accents, intelligence, morality, and civilized behavior. During this period of time the blacks were separated from the whites, in buses, restaurants, waiting rooms, jobs and more. In other words they were treated almost as "slaves," whites were .
allowed to lynch them (burn them alive, or kill them in front of the public). During the 1960s black playwright, LeRoi Jones, founded the Black Arts Movement to inspire art that was by, for, and about black people.
Early in his career, Jones wrote another heart breaking Dutchman Play, an allegory of mid-1960s race relations. Shocking and controversial, the play depicts a tragic encounter between a white woman and a black man on a New York City subway train. Here he crosses paths with a psychotic pathological liar named Lula. In this play we are given some insight to what it likes to be caught up in racist battles over stereotypes, and accusations. More so, we are drawn into the reality of the problems our society faces with these issues. Clay is an African-American the representative of the assimilation faced by many of the black middle class through White's like Lula. Clay stands as a symbol of frustrated gains, a self-possessed, educated individual who cannot escape the stereotypes and power dynamics of his racist society. Lula represent the whites power in America during that time. Though Lula is the oppressor, condescendingly sees Clay as a stereotype and commands the topics with which they essentially talk at each other, she then admitting that she is a liar, and later, that she is insane.
