Race Issues Represented in Clybourne Park Agustina Araya Lucato College

Race discrimination is still persistent nowadays. Although they come from different reasons (history of a country, systematic inequalities and stereotypes) one main important reason is the lack of understanding among the communities that share a territory. Especially in the USA, black people have a history of being oppressed and discriminated by white people. This is evident in the play “Clybourne Park” by Bruce Norris, which clearly shows the lack of listening to others and understanding that is necessary to have empathy towards them. This lack of understanding is evident in the way that some characters do not actually leave room for others to give their opinion. They do not listen to what characters like Francine, Albert or Lena are saying and, therefore, misinterpret or deform their words to their own convenience.

In both acts of the play, black people are interrupted or not even listened to at all. In act I, Francine cannot give her honest opinion because she is interrupted by Bev. Similarly, in act II, after Karl told Russ that a black family is buying their house, they start discussing whether it would be best for the neighbor and for the family to move to Clybourne Park, given that it was a white community. Jim, the...