Last weekend, Bowdoin students performed Amiri Baraka's play, "Dutchman." "Dutchman" focuses on a disturbed white girl, Lula, who, with the provocation of her body and lascivious speech, prepares to kill a stranger she has picked up on the subway. The stranger, Clay, is a young, naive, black man. Lula mocks Clay for wearing the clothes and employing the voice and manners of the conventional white intellectual. Clay exhibits the qualities of an insecure, black bourgeoisie. At the end of the play, Clay is murdered by the insane and calculating white seductress, who coldly prepares for her next victim, another black bourgeoisie, as the curtain falls.
Amiri Baraka's poem, "Black Bourgeoisie," describes a person similar to Clay?he wears clothing of his contemporary white counterparts, trying to assimilate into the white American culture. He keeps his thoughts and needs to himself not to look desperate, and he raises his kids with the same attitude in order to be successful. Baraka's poem is as follows:
Black Bourgeoisie,
has a gold tooth, sits long hours
on a stool thinking about money.
sees white skin in a secret room
rummages his sense for sense
dreams about Lincoln(s)
conks his daughter's hair
sends his coon to school
works very hard
grins politely in restaurants
has a good word to say
never says it
does not hate ofays
hates, instead, him self
him black self
-Imamu Amiri Baraka, 1959
Both Baraka's "Dutchman" and "Black Bourgeoisie" highlight the racial tensions between white and black America. During slavery and the civil rights movement, America struggled with inequalities where whites benefited and blacks suffered. Many black playwrights, like Baraka, used themes of racial injustice and intolerance, and essentially flipped them so that stereotypes were questioned. For example, before the civil rights movement, strength and dominance were associated with White men because they had all the power, therefore considered masculine. Black men were associated with femininity because, as slaves, they were seen as a weak, subordinate group; black men were considered inferior to all whites, both male and female, causing black men to be linked with femininity by white men. In "Dutchman," Baraka inverts these traditional stereotypes. Clay, the black male, represents strength and masculinity, and Lula, the white female, represents fragility and insubordination. Yet, the color of their skins counter-act the masculine/feminine roles each character is suppose to play; these characteristics lead the audience into a battle over racial and social equality. Though racism and social equality were more prevalent during the 1960s, these inequalities still exist today.
Amiri Baraka's "Dutchman" is equally relevant to the Bowdoin campus. A number of students find it difficult to sustain their cultural backgrounds while fitting in with Bowdoin's predominately white middle-class; students are not embracing cultural diversity and respecting other cultures as often as they should be. Most events that defy the regulated norms, those perpetuated by the "Bowdoin Bubble," are largely unnoticed and scarcely attended. Even with Bowdoin's recent success in its commitment to student diversity, Bowdoin continues to struggle with faculty diversity.
The Office of Admissions holds Invitational and Experience Weekend, two events per academic year, to attract a variety of students. What about the recruitment of diverse faculty members? Presently, there are 406 students of color on campus, yet how many faculty members of color are there? While faculty diversity estimations and initiatives often go unmentioned and unresolved, it is important to understand the relevance that faculty diversity has to the student population. Diverse faculty members bring more perspectives, both inside and outside of the classroom. Bowdoin has worked hard to improve its past lack of student diversity, but it still has a long way to go in increasing the overall diversity.
Kayla Baker is a member of the Class of 2009. Isa Abney is a member of the Class of 2011, the African American Society, and the Bowdoin Queer Straight Alliance.