Racism In The Play Fences

Words: 878
Pages: 4

“A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee.” (Bill Clinton in 2008) . When I read this quote I didn’t knew who ‘this guy’ was Bill Clinton, a former president, was talking about. Well he wouldn’t say that about another president like Barack Obama would he? But that’s exactly what happened. That’s a very racist quote from someone who had a very high position in the country, but is the whole country that racist? Is racism still as bad as it was in August Wilson's play “Fences”? In order to find out if racism was still that bad, I needed a text about racism in today’s society. I chose the CNN Article “What black America won’t miss about Obama” by John Blake written in 2016. Are there more similarities or differences between …show more content…
Troy lives in a lower class family, so he does not have a lot of power or money. That’s the reason why he couldn’t pay for the house by himself, but he had to ‘steal’ Gabriel’s money to buy it. Obama on the other hand lives in the highest class possible, because he is the president of the United States of America,so a man with a lot of power and money. He lives in the white house and can make very important decisions affecting all of us.
One more topic I looked at considering life struggles is prejudice. I noticed that Troy is very prejudiced against white people. He thinks that coaches only let white players play and that the black players always sit on the bench although they are better (p.33-34). He won’t change his opinion even though his wife tries to explain to him that this is no the truth. In the article, on the other hand, you can read that Obama is not prejudiced against white people, but that they are prejudiced about him. They think that just because he’s black, he’s a bad president.
If you look at Fences and the CNN article you can see that they both represent struggles in life. It does not matter whether it’s a lower or higher class person: both are facing those