Racism in August Wilson’s Selected Plays: A Historical Background

Racism is a dominant them in the African American literature. Many writers and authors attempted to focus on this theme in their works. August Wilson, as a an American author and citizen, display the effect of this dangerous societal blight on the norms and cultural issues of the American society in general and African American in particular. His plays Fences, Two Trains Running and Piano Lesson treated this theme by offering some solutions for such problem. The paper displays the root of racism in the American society and define racism according to the norms and culture of the American. The paper also finds that Wilson traced the appearances of racism in the American society after the great migration and how the migration of the Black from the south to the North motivated the rise of racism in the American society.


Introduction
It is worth noting that some literary American critics have discussed elaborately and with much profundity the terms "race" and "ethnic" in their works.They emphasize that these two terms point to a concept of human nature.Sternberg and Kidd said that "race" is a socially built concept, not a biological one, which originates from people's longing to categorize the concept of human "race" as one of the natural and separate partitions within the human being (Sternberg, 2005).
In any case, "race" is described as an accumulation of prejudgments that curve Man's musings with respect to human differentiations and get-together lead.Racial convictions have generated myths about the capacities and conduct of individuals, which are homogenized groups into racial classes.The outcomes of bigotry-social bad form, a less gainful economy and an isolated group-are plainly impeding and injurious .
Racism occurs when one ethnic gathering or verifiable collectivity commands, prohibits, or looks to take out another gathering on the premise of contrasts that the first group accepts are genetic and unalterable.No reasonable and unequivocal confirmation of prejudice is found in different societies or in Europe before the medieval times.The identification of the Jews with the fallen angels and witchcraft in the prominent personality of the thirteenth and fourteenth hundreds of years was maybe the primary indication of a supremacist perspective of the world.Such states of mind showed up in sixteenth-century Spain when the Jews had turned into Christians whose relatives turned into the casualties of an example of segregation and rejection.
Buffon and Blumenbach, were supporters of monogenesis, the notion that indicates that races have one single origin.They proposed the "degeneration theory" of racial origins.They mentioned both that Adam and Eve were Caucasian and that other races appeared through the degeneration caused by environmental factors, such as the sun and diet poor in nutrients.''They believed that degeneration could be reversed if proper environmental control was taken'' (Swihart, 2014:6), and that all contemporary forms of man could revert to the original Caucasian race (Harris, 2001).Thus, race ideology was used as a tool to justify unequal social groups.Therefore, race has no essential connection to human biological variety, which is a natural output of the preliminary evolutionary forces, while races are a social invention (Smedley, 2013).The racial belief system was in the end taken to extremes in Nazi Germany.It drove Hitler and his followers to endeavor in the killing of an entire ethnic group on the premise of a bigot belief system.Unequivocal racism additionally went under a staggering assault from the new countries coming about because of ''the decolonization of Africa and Asia'' (Neier, 2012:14), and their agents in the United Nations.The Civil Rights development in the United States, which prevailed concerning banning sanctioned racial isolation and separation in the 1960s, drew pivotal help from the developing sense that national interests were debilitated when the blacks in the United States were abused and mishandled.In opposition with the Soviet Union, "the hearts and psyches" of free Africans and Asians and the philosophy that supported it, turned into a national shame with conceivable vital results.The one supremacist administration that survived the Second World War and the Cold War was the South African one'' (Neier, 2012:16), formed in 1948.The laws would restrict all marriage and sexual relations between different racial groups (Neier, 2012:17), requiring separate neighborhoods for individuals of blended mixed race, named "Coloreds".The laws applied to Africans were a similar fixation on "race virtue", as the other supremacist administrations.However, the atmosphere of a world feeling that was still in the wake of the Holocaust incited theological rationalists for politically sanctioned racial segregation.This attitude of many countries generally maintains a strategic distance from direct organic bigotry and trusts the jury to decide on "isolate improvement".
Prejudice does not require the full and expressed support of the state and the law, nor does it require a belief system fixated on the idea of natural imbalance (Neier, 2012:18).Segregation by organizations and people against those appearing as racially unique can live on and even thrive under the illusion of non-prejudice, as antiquarians of Brazil have found.The use of purportedly profound social contrasts as a legitimization for threatening wealth and oppressed newcomers from the Third World has prompted claims of another "social bigotry" in a few European nations.Recent cases of a supremacist social determinism are not in fact remarkable; they rather address a reversal of the way that the complexities between bunches in the public arena could be made to seem changeless and unbridgeable before the articulation of a sensible or naturalistic beginning of race in the eighteenth century (Neier, 2012:19).

C. L. R. James mentioned in his Modern Political:
"The conception of dividing people by race begins with the slave trade.This thing was so shocking, so opposed to all the conceptions of society which religion and philosophers had, […] that the only justification by which humanity could face it, was to divide people into races and decide that the Africans were an inferior race."(James, 2013: 127).
The term "race" became more distinctly used and reference to the African and others created a new form of social identity.Thus, slaves were considered a property and denied social and human rights (Smedley. 2013).The next section discusses the origin of racism through history and collects the suitable definitions, as well as the points of view made in this respect.

The Origin of Racism
"Racism is a particular form of oppression.It stems from discrimination against a group of people, based on the idea that some inherited characteristics, such as skin or color, makes them inferior to their oppressors.Yet, the concepts of "race" and "racism" are modern inventions.They arose and became part of the dominant ideology of society in the context of the African slave trade at the dawn of capitalism in the 1500s and 1600s".(Mentan, 2018, 114) Racism is a term that refers to social distinctions and injustices in society.To date, we have individuals who have been segregated on terms of race, being isolated by their race.According to Kenan Malik, in current society, bigotry rises up out of the inconsistency between an ideological sense of duty regarding balance and the industriousness of disparity as a functional reality (Kenan, 1998:33).Malik studies the improvement of racial philosophy in the course of the last two hundred years, following the diverse structures it has taken from natural hypotheses of race to the connection amongst race and culture.Particular consideration is centered on the effect of the separation of the postwar era and the end of the Cold War and the accompanying re-politicization of the possibility of racial contrast.Malik goes ahead to study the poststructuralist and postmodern hypotheses of distinction which have turned into the foundation of contemporary antiracist speech .
Racism is the conviction that one's race, skin color or belonging to one groupbe it religious, national or ethnicis better than others are, at level of humankind.Bigotry is as old as society itself, insofar as people have been around.Racism has constantly loathed or dreaded individuals of an alternate country, skin, or shading.At the end of the day, bigotry is just a part of human nature.John L. Dawson, a congressional representative from 1845 until 1848, asserted that an "intuition of our tendency" incited us to sort people into racial classes and see normal for the whites when diverged from people with dull skins (Scare, 1998).It is essential to understand that a few socialists have a genuine test concerning bigotry: "If prejudice is hard-wired into human science, at that point we should lose faith in regards to specialists regularly beating the divisions between them to battle for communist society free or racial imbalance.Luckily, racism is not a piece of nature.The best proof for this declaration is the way that prejudice has not generally existed."(Jaret, 2015:5-6).
The possibility of racism is derived from the word race and it is assumed that one racial or ethnic social group is contrasted with another based on unequal rights.David Wellman characterized bigotry as a "game plan of purpose of inclination in light of race" (Wellman, 1993: xi).The significance of race is useful because it allows us to see that prejudice resembles distinctive sorts of articulation, not only an individual who attempts to have social rights.In any case, it is also a system including social messages and institutional methodologies and practices, feelings, and exercises of individuals (Daniel, 2003).
On the other hand, general astounding offensiveness about detachment between individuals as indicated by their race still exists.While "race" may have showed up in making hundreds out of years back, the term keeps being misused.There is a noticeable spread in the centrality of the race and ethnicity (Kenan, 1996).The term "racism" is predominantly used in a normal way to portray the undesirable sensations of people toward another and the action stemming from such attitudes (Frederickson, 2003).
Thus, the first clear evidence of racism appeared at the end of the sixteenth century when the slave trade began from Africa to Britain and to America.Therefore, there appears a need for examining the roots of racism in order to understand it and to fight it effectively.There is an explanation for the existence of racism.However, a number of characteristics involved in racism are neglected, and it just refers to decisions over the conduct of man, and not to his moral potentials, innate rights, or physical appearance.There usually comes up the topic of racist opinions instead of behavioral patterns.Usually, racism is described as a way of observing others and it does not belong to methods of violence or the actual behavior of racists.Racism may imply a vague way that refers to a set of beliefs that some human beings are inferior individuals.Since 1619, when the first group of slaves was carried to Jamestown Virginia, American race relationships have been a significant theme of study, as proven by the plethora of books, articles, plays, and theses on the respective subjects.According to some historians America is not an established country with a historically deeprooted nation but rather it contains types of outsiders from everywhere throughout those who want to change their destiny and have their own heaven on the earth.Therefore, America becomes country where everyone wishes to live.However, the African groups were brought against their will on North American continent.Hence, the problem of race discrimination appeared and has become a major problem since then.
It can be concluded that racism is not just an issue for the African Americans, but an issue that affects African culture.As Keene R. Greene underlines, ''bigotry," the precise subordination of one race, remains a noteworthy issue in the United States for the African American family.Racism refers to "any states of mind, activity or institutional structure which subordinates a man or gathering as a result of their shading… bigotry is not a matter of demeanors, activities, and institutional structures can be likewise a type of prejudice (Greene, 1998).Racism in the United States in the Twentieth century had developed as a noteworthy radical and social matter.The freedom in the African countries such as Nigeria, Kenya and Vietnam lived in the awareness of numerous African-Americans to the extent to which the possibility of dominion and expansionism is concerned .
African-American writing alludes to the sort of writing created by the best dramatists, writers, authors and journalists of African American origins in the United States.These journalists have taken an interest in experimental writing, which brings a type of writing of their own, rich in sensitive nuance and social knowledge, which offers enlightening overview of American characters and past.Racism is one of the main topics of African-American writing.Racial contrasts deliver an innate prevalence of a specific race.It is widely known that the marginal of ethnic groups might be denied human rights or they might get special treatment (Dawn, 2014).
Relationships between individuals are connected, and along these lines, the idea of bigotry identifies with this sort of relations.Bigotry is associated to ethnicity.Prejudice, subsequently, ought to be given more importance.According to Albert Memmi, "Prejudice is the valuation, summed up and authoritative, of natural contrasts, genuine or nonexistent, to the upside of informer and drawback of his casualty, so as to legitimize animosity" (Isaa, 2004: 19).This definition outlines the limited feeling of bigotry.
In addition to this, racism is the hypothesis outlining that some particular human qualities and capacities are dictated by race.At first, it is suitable to mention that one solitary meaning will never suit everyone, as prejudice is not a logical hypothesis or idea, but rather a complex of thoughts, dispositions and types of practices.Also, bigotry is not an element that is unbiasedly investigated; it changes after some time and among countries, contingent upon a large number of components.
Racism as an idea existed since the time of Renaissance reconstruction when contact with individuals of darker pigmentation in Africa and Asia expanded and the Americans were making judgment about them (Frederickson, 2003).At the point when Virginia declared in 1667 that trading over slaves could be kept in subjugation, a feeling of bigotry showed up.In the late seventeenth century, laws were additionally passed in English North America, denying marriage amongst whites and blacks, in an attempt to separating future generations.Such laws suggested that the blacks were unalterably outsider and second rate (Fredrickson, 2003) .
African-American playwrights and journalists depicted in their works their battle against racism and they endeavored to draw the picture of isolation rehearsed by the white American culture.In addition, those artists took new directions and changed their style in their scholarly works.For example, Langston Hughes, Lorraine Hansberry, August Wilson and others.They focused on their down confrontation with prejudice to demonstrate their opinions in front of other people.
Since ancient times, race has been considered a reason for individuals to reject others simply based on their skin color.A few people trust that their race is better than other races, which makes them masters of bigotry.In this way, individuals called it "logical prejudice" to show that their race is better than others (Faye, 1998).The issue of race, sex and sexuality is mostly the reminiscent result of a remote settlement and of the acknowledgment of the points set by the interests of the white isolated society.Subjugation is one reason behind prompt fight between the two groups-the white and the black, and the likelihood of the disregard for sex, sexuality, and slave's condition has considerably increased.
Racism is characterized as a bias, separation or enmity coordinated against somebody of an alternate race, in light of the conviction that one's own race is predominant.Present day variations are frequently in view of social impression of organic contrasts between individuals.August Wilson, an important American playwright, promotes African American culture and history to the public in order for it to judge culture through artistic expressions.A Pulitzer Prize laureate with basic notoriety can position him without a doubt as the most noticeable black producer among the twentieth century era scholars.Wilson's distinction lies in the understanding of the quandaries of the denied blacks living in the United States urban communities.Wilson's teenage neighborhood and his stay with the Jewish workers and black Americans have led him to investigate the niches of the public.Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps had raised his interest at an early age through their creations .
Racism is everywhere; it surrounds us, and in most circumstances, it lives inside of us.Prejudice is an apparatus, which individuals use to separate themselves from each other.We see bigotry consistently and all around us.Regardless of whether individuals know it or not, it is all over the place.Along these lines, Race and Racism have a considerable potential to manage social orders.Social orders let bigotry manifest itself, and it receives the support of those individuals who see themselves as higher in status than others.A traditionalist perspective demonstrates that those races regarded as mediocre stand no chance of improving their status.We realize that there are no organic components improving one race in comparison to another.Race, which calls for prejudice, is something used to legitimize brutalities, mercilessness, and out-of-line treatment of individuals all around the globe (Gould, 2003).
Finally, racism takes many forms as indicated in American drama in general and in African-American dramas in particular.Racism, unfortunately, is also present in songs, daily speech, and music and it is a subject discussed in many literary forms, such as novels, essays, poetry and others.Some African American playwrights and writers portray their struggles through their works and they draw an image of segregation.Writers such as Langston Hughes, Lorraine Hansberry and August Wilson try to highlight exploitation, prejudice and discrimination, which are regarded as manifestations of racism, as themes in their works.These playwrights involved in creative writings, which resulted in works of their own, opulent in social insight, present enlightening assessments of American characteristics and past.Racism is one of the main issues in African-American literature.

Racism in African American Literature
To understand the term "racism" one is required to have a deep insight of its meanings and how its practice affect the oppressed, especially the black society.Racism affects family relationships.The behavior of individuals living within the racial system faces tremendous difficulties: "Even today, 150 years after the end of slavery, and with economic, educational, and occupational and others advances for many African Americans, racism remains a reality."(Rosen -Blatt, 2012: 1).It is a reality to understand that people are treated with such racism that it leads to the struggle of the African American people.
African American literature stems from the American culture that has changed throughout the centuries.This period preceded the American common war and the development for the rights of the blacks saw the sort of writings that are mainly compromised of diaries written by individuals escaped slavery.The aim of a slave story is regarded to be the best approach to express the desire for freedom and the path of justice: ….there was an early distinction between the literature of free and the literature of free black, who had been born in the north.Free blacks had to express their oppression in different narrative form.They spoke out against slavery and racial injustice using spiritual narrative.(Carla, 1995) Black writers created a new genre, which dates back to the works of late eighteenth century authors such as Phyllis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano who have reached an early peak when dealing with slave stories.It is the kind of literature that nowadays can be found when studying authors such as Toni Morrison, Maya Angelo and Walter Mosley, who are considered great writers of America.In the African-American literature, the authors of this period explore particular issues and present certain images related to the concepts of culture, racism, slavery, etc. by means of verbal discourses such as spiritual sermons, gospel music, blues and raps, which entertain audiences and readers who continue to enjoy them at their own convenience.The authors concerned try to devise new genres for their writings with purpose to present their daily life struggle and sufferings.The authors also portray the way and the reasons for which they are oppressed, by using new means of expression to give many and various details about their constrained lives.
Among the famous African-American authors is the bard Phyllis Wheatley (1753-84), who published her book of poems on numerous topics in 1773, three years after the liberation of America.Wheatley was seven years old when she was captured and sold into slavery, being taken from Senegal, in Africa, and brought into America at that time.After having become an adult, she turned into the best poet to portray her feeling about the suffering and struggling of the black society at that time.She began to write her poems, which fascinated several white people who thinks it is difficult to trust that a black woman would be as smart and educated as to compose poetry.She became so well known, that she was able to defend the interests of the black people in court.Some critics see Wheatley's successful protection of her people in her poetic works as the first appreciation of African American literature (Cashore, 2005).
Racism has been discussed and defined in many ways over the years.According to the commission on civil Rights, it can be well-defined as any action or influential structure which assists a person or a group of people because of their color (Timby & Smith, 2013 :79), so ''it is not just a matter of attitudes[ because] action and institutional structures can also be a form of racism'' (Asante,2014: 1).
The term "racism" had several meanings, such as, ''preference, misuse, and manhandle'' in the late of twentieth century.These new types of prejudice are sometimes referred to as bigotry nowadays.These terms influence the dispositions and activities of individuals while crediting qualities to others who depend on racial stereotypes: Some scholars consider modern racism to be characterized by an explicit rejection of stereotypes, combined with resistance to change structures of discrimination for reasons that are ostensibly non-racial an ideology that considers opportunity at a purely individual basis, denying the relevance of race in determining individual opportunities, and exhibition of indirect forms of micro-aggression toward and/or avoidance of people of others race.(Olumide, 2016: 924) As found in most of the literature, it is considered that racism is a part of human instinct, as it takes an important part in human life and experience.Prejudice is not a topic that needs to be intellectualized, as it is seen everywhere in one's attempt at managing individuals of various racial and ethnic origins.It finds its cause in one's treatment to others and it speaks to various races and ethnic groups.It can be regarded as a type of persecution against those having different skin colors.In view of such qualities as these, the blacks are perceived as sub-par compared to the whites.Thus, racism is considered something harmful to society, which demonstrates its transmission from individual to individual and from era to era.It can be said that bigotry is an issue identified with the psychology of man who normally feels forceful to others with innate qualities different from this counterparts.Richard Thomas, a historian, rejects the notion that racism is an inherent part of human nature and he rejects the idea that racism is an inevitable and naturel consequence of interactions among people of different racial backgrounds.He bases his beliefs on the fact that racism comes to be known in the modern era and springs from the circumstances and situations in which the whites have to deal with the blacks who were obliged to live within their society as slaves serving their interests.This subject will direct us to see and examine the issues identified with bigotry, so we may better perceive "solidarity in decent variety" and the "unity" of mankind" despite the fact that countries have different populations everywhere on the planet (Medina, 2006).In this way, it is no big surprise that prejudice inevitably makes sense in the African American writing, because of the blacks' desire to free themselves from the shackles forced upon them by the whites, with the goal to become ordinary individuals, like any other.
Racism can be expressed in many ways, such as misuse, subjugation, partiality and manhandle.African American dramatists endeavor to give their readers and people prominent pictures in an attempt to make them realize how the whites treat blacks badly.In any case, any scientist who endeavors to comprehend the beginnings and the legacy of prejudice must investigate the activity of every single recorded performing artist on the American stage crosswise over history (Medina, 2006).Therefore, Racism and prejudice has been present in almost every civilization and society throughout history.Even though the world has progressed greatly in the last couple of decades, both socially and technologically, racism, hatred and prejudice still exists today, deeply embedded in old-fashioned, narrow-minded traditions and values.
The idea that only white people can be racist may stem from the fact that the philosophy of racism as an explicit ideology justifying colonial expansion, slavery, segregation, exclusion and domination has been more developed in the West than anywhere else was.Racism involves either bigotry or seeing others as in some fundamental way less human or less worthy, whereas prejudice may signify merely some negative attitude toward or negative belief about the other group.Although the arguments here understate the seriousness of prejudice itself, racist bigotry and attitudes of superiority are more morally vile than the term prejudice normally conveys.It misleads to say that people of color can be prejudiced but not racist.It is true that the notion of prejudice fails to capture what we mean by racism-not, however, because it fails to involve power, but because it refers or can refer to psychic attitudes that are weaker than the racial hatred, bigotry, contempt, and degradation involved in racism (Babbit and Campbell, 1999).
Racism is a case of misplaced hate and ignorance, being not only discriminatory, but also seemingly foolish with disregard of all human commonsense.One of the problems with this often-stated statement of racism as human nature is that framing racism as primordial and intrinsic to the human condition empties racism of its politics.If racism is not "human nature", but learned behavior and practices arising out of institutional, social, legal and historical power relations, political scripts, government policies and media framings, then don't we need to spend more time understanding how such behavior is learned and, even more importantly, what it takes to resist the sheer weight of racist ideology?It is not up to racialized people to do all the hard work that is needed to dismantle the racial logics of our society.It is time we unsettle the common sense understanding that racism is human nature, behavior and attitude.

Images of Exploitation, Abuse in the Name of Racism
The term "black" does not only denote race, but it carries with it the vestige of slavery segregation and abuse.The idea of racism is taken from the word ''race'' and implies that one racial or ethnic gathering is regarded as being second rate when compared to another, while people receive unequal treatment.As shown by David Wellman who defined racism as an "arrangement of point of preference in light of race'' (Tylor, 2013:85), the meaning of race is helpful, based on the grounds that it permits us to see that racism like different other types of expression, is not just an individual philosophy taking into account racial bias.However, slavery is the main cause for racism.Wilson was always interested in displaying concepts of abuse, exploitation and racism as practiced against African American people in the twentieth century.He tries to portray the long periods of sufferings, oppressions and abuse caused by slavery, which fall into the category of racial discrimination.
Wilson intends to attribute a voice to those oppressed groups.He aims to enrich African-American history with valuable themes and aspects.He does not only attempt to make out of his drama a history book for black Americans, so as to make them think deeply about their past and present life, but he also uses this as way of thinking about their future and their dreams.In his early life, Wilson had to work hard to help his family, compromising six children, that were living in the racially Pittsburg ghetto.It was an environment characterized by slavery and racism in all their forms, which had affected his earlier writings.In portraying different themes regarding abuse, exploitation, and racism in his works, he actually portrayed part of his experience that he had acquired both when young and later on, starting with the white suburb where he lived and faced radical racism and ending with school.These harsh conditions made him drop out of school and go for self-study in history and literature.His main concern in that regard was to be involved in the Black Power Movement.He wanted to help people get a better understanding of black people in a multicultural society.For the purpose of creating works describing longer periods in the life of the African-Americans, he used a strategy through which he made each play portray one decade, as a historical circle from the first decade of the 20th century down to the1980s, focusing on the cultural aspects of color differences that governed his society.
Despite the abolition of legitimate racism such as in the case of the segregationist "Jim Crow law" which initiated discrimination, racial and ethnic subgroups.African-Americans were left facing racial segregation by being topic to "unequal protection of the laws, excessive surveillance, extreme segregation, and neo-slave labor via incarceration, all in the name of crime control" (Wacquant, 2002: 13).Wilson regarded exploitation and racial prejudice as brutal and painful, two concepts that would scare minorities away.There are stores in which black people were not welcomed and where no black salesperson was allowed to work.Even literature was racially prejudiced in some way.Ethnic isolation and bigotry were prevalent throughout drama and literature.
While "race" may have been around for hundreds of years, the term is still being misused.It is conceivable that long involvements with racism and segregation could lead to the evolution of specific individual behaviors in response to and as a reaction against whatever writers perceived as being held against them, or whatever jeopardizes their identity.Since the increased racial discrimination faced by the community of the blacks, some African-American individuals may retort to these adverse events concerning their racial identities by developing specific character qualities in their early adult years that could in turn incline them towards engaging in illegal acts, all these caused by misjudgment and lack of acceptance from society.Therefore, these negative experiences suffered by African American community, as Painter realizes, have "made jail part of the symbolism of black masculinity" (Painter, 2007: 384).
Additionally, the African-American society "continues to be bombarded by the legal impact of racism in modern society, including harsher sentencing and police treatment for African Americans at least partially due to the practice of racial profiling" (Sutherland, & Cressey, 1974: 133).It has been noticed in the literature that African Americans have been similar to be detained, impeached, sentenced, and dedicated to an institution than the whites who were guilty of similar wrongdoings.There was some kind of an invisible racism implied within some type of punishments: occupational bans for previous offenders such as an inability to work with children or law enforcement, as well as an employer's ease to checking criminal background continue to serve as invisible punishments for African American offenders at a greater rate than these … [which affect] the non-African American population in general.(Brewer, & Heitzeg, 2008: 625) Discrimination is also mentioned in the practices of the state procedures that concern the treatment of the black people recorded, for example, in the police procedures: "Police action within low socioeconomic, racial and ethnic minority neighborhoods often consequences in adverse penalties to these communities'' (Cooley-Strickland et al, 2009:129).
Russell adds that the African American people have an "endless supply of police harassment stories which can be observed in unfair stops, questioning, assault, public humiliation, and even as far as the use of derogatory language and labeling."(Russell, K., 1998: 33).Therefore, such procedures have played a great role in loosening trust in the police in that part of society.Furthermore, "when called upon for service to these [black] communities, a much slower response time for assistance is found within these communities" (Brunson, & Miller, 2006: 531).Accordingly, the mutual existence of hyper vigilant police actions are regarded as a cause of terror and suspicion in these societies rather than imparting a state of security in law implementation.Dixon (2008) examines the effects of harmful overexposure of African Americans by means of broadcasting; Dixon investigates the effect of local news on the wrongdoing and the belief in the expectation of African-Americans and criminality.Dixon asserts -"the attention to crime news was positively associated with harsher guilt for African-American perpetrators and suspects compared to White suspects" (Dixon, 2008: 106-7).There are numerous conceivable clarifications for these relations; the essential of which can be clarified as clandestine discrimination.Dixon continues saying that "News viewing may be part of a process that makes the construct or cognitive linkage between Blacks and criminality frequently activated and therefore chronically accessible" (Dixon, 2008: 107).
Researchers propose that the dominant culture has dominated the dishonors about African-Americans using racial micro aggressions are: "brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to people of color because they belong to a racial minority group (Sue et al, 1997: 273).Wilson's plays have been selected for this study due to their influence on black culture and black identity.Wilson finds that his people's pain and suffering are the result of abuse and corruption in the name of the racism practiced by the whites: "on the basis of strength of their influence socially and culturally as well as dramatically" (Shamal, 2012: 6-7).
When reading the play "Fences", one may realize that from its very beginning, it pictures the blacks' pains and sufferings due to the oppression of the whites and to the harsh laws imposed upon them: "Stories that explore suffering and exploitation always have and will forever continue to grab at our hearts and minds" (Sargeant, 2014: 3).Therefore, through his play "Fences", Wilson focused on the social position of black people in society."Fences" is a continuation of the study of social standings of the black man, those social standings can mean his place in society" (Kiffer, 2009: 7).
Consequently, the whites have been viewed as minor performers in Wilson's drama.In spite of his observations regarding white society in his drama as the main antagonists, Wilson's white characters have acted repeatedly in order to amend or change their miserable destiny.Yet, they have been depicted as being circumstantial rather than dominant to the actions of his plays.Since the existence of Wilson's black characters is correlated to white Americans, we want to take care to the image of the whites in Wilson's work.
In this paper I preferred to consider how the whites are treated in Wilson's writing in order to reveal their central status in African American art as well as to give a more accurate understanding of its implications: "August Wilson had an all-but-official rule: No white directors for major productions."(Healy, 2009: 5).Race is an issue in Wilson's plays starting with "Fences" and "The Piano Lesson", which won him the Pulitzer Prize, and which shed light over problems that arise due to racism (Goodale, 1998: 5).Due to the fact that the characters have the opportunity to enter the white man's center of interest, Wilson's play "Fences" can rarely be analyzed in terms of a conflict between good and evil, or by characters who are more notable for being a symbol of oppression.In dramatic terms, Negroes are the characters who have usually occupied Wilson's plays (Brantley, 2007:6), for they are: Individualists who improvise their way through the sweet-and-sour jazz of life on the Hill.It is August Wilson's point, of course, that when people cut themselves off from their heritage, within Wilson's world, there is hope for any man who can talk like that.(Brantly, 2007: 5).
In a story that Troy tells in the play, the fallen angel is described as a white business visionary who has abused his naive clients.In the play, Troy Maxson seems to have no contact with his old teammates or with admirers, nor does he have the memories of great cities and famous people and epic games that sustain almost all former players, even those forced by segregation to labor in the Negro Leagues.(Vecsey, 1987: 3).

Fences
The play "Fences" is noted for its depiction of several issues that have a direct contact with black culture."Fences" has a time set selected shortly before the racial clashes of the 1960s.Troy is a city laborer, who has seen that quite recently white men are sufficiently magnificent to be drivers, despite the fact that he has no driver's license.Troy complains about the disgracefulness of a structure that favors one race, while overlooking another.He is promoted, yet the outcome is that he no longer works with his associates, as the fellowship of the working spot has been lost because of institutional racism against the black workers.The father-kid battle at the core of "Fences" is thus observed as the microcosm of the larger republic debate itself (Marilyn, 2013: 11).Troy's demise is considered a topic worth talking talked about.
The fence, which is a symbol for security, turns into an obstacle of escaping for Cory and afterward for Troy himself.Troy and Cory's ultimate showdown toward the end of the play unmistakably mimics the fight between Troy and his dad.The whip has been replaced with the bat, yet both sound as the instruments of the discipline of oppression.Troy cannot recognize himself in either part even if he is compelled to treat his family or to face his woes.The evil spirits that frequent him, cause him a state of suppression he has never possessed the capacity to overcome his problems.He banishes his child from his home, as a demonstration of power and control through self-protection that he attempts to make for himself and his family.However, it is a result of culture contrasts, and he denies the race issue, not on the premise of race but rather on the premise of culture.Troy's demise, as observed through an African's perspective, brings into focus a social component and assumes that the front line will set right what the past period has left settled.Two sorts of replicas settle issues within the African American group in general within the writing: "those that center on African American 'inferiority' and those that center on deficits and deficiencies that exist within this community at large" (Parham et al., 1999:.14).
"Fences" suggests the approaching of a certain age in the life of a marginalized black man.It is about the struggle of the black people during the twentieth century.It describes the struggle that many blacks encountered, because there are two different characters depicted in Troy and Cory.Troy plays the role of the hero who was disappointed with everyone he has been associated.He was enforced to leave home at an early age because his father used to brutally beat him.Troy never understood how to behave with people, so he certainly does not gives any one the chance to realize him, because he is self-centered.This turned Troy into the antagonist of the story because he fights everyone in the play, who does not agree with him, thus complicating his life more.
The discrimination and prejudice that Troy experienced while playing baseball and the torment he withstands as a youngster shape him into a dynamic character.The key clash is the connection amongst Troy and Cory.Both of them have negative thoughts concerning Cory's future and, as the play progresses, this relationship degrades since Troy does not encourage Cory to play university football.The relationship turns out to be even more breaking when Troy concedes his connection with Alberta and he confines Gabriel to a mental institution unintentionally.The complexity starts throughout Troy's life when his dad beats him brutally; this made Troy leave home and starts a disturbed life alone.In Act I, Troy remarks that "Death ain't nothing but a fastball on the outside corner'' (Shannon, 2003: 156).
Troy depicts himself as strong and eternal to Bono and Rose.Wilson gives the reader a feeling that Troy is strong, and builds his character in this direction.It is then demonstrated that Troy's capacity to control his own particular destiny weakens over as the play evolves.Lyons could not satisfy his own fantasies or do what means the most to him-simply like Troy.This focuses on the way that in life one needs to acknowledge setbacks much as one acknowledges good luck: any positive experience has its negative counterpart.Troy acknowledges his agony in his connection with his dad, his fight for existence when he first stirred north, his opportunity in prison and his incapability to support himself financially through football: "Some people build fences to keep people out and other people build fences to keep people in.Rose wants to hold on to you all.She loves you."(Shannon, 2003: 159) Bono discloses to Cory and Troy why Rose needs a fence worked round their backyard.This hints at the American custom about keeping black individuals behinds walls.Bono expresses the double meaning a fence can have by summoning the verifiable conditions following the abolition of the slavery that altogether have their effects on Troy's destiny.Troy's adversities in life identify with the circumstances in the United States of black men and women living in the post-Reconstruction period.
Sometimes, gatherings and associations may decide on what appears to be reasonable for everybodyexcept they really make things more troublesome for individuals with specific social or ethnic origins.This theory was set forth by the sociologist Robert E. Park in the 1920s.It is grounded on the concept of culture: "the ethnicity theory says that race is a social category and is but one of several factors in determining ethnicity.Some other criteria include: religion, language, customs, nationality, and political identification" (Omi, & Winant, 1986: 15).
A rehashed theme in "Fences" is the relationship between the black fathers who cares about the lives of his kids, but unable to face his own faults so he blamed his kids: "You can't visit the sins of the father upon the child" (Shannon, 2003: 159).Rose trusts the torment of one-era rests there and each new era would become more out of life than the one preceding it, while Troy considers life to continue similarly as he has known it.
Skin-color plays a significant part in "Fences".There is a strong connection of other concepts which have other deep effects on Wilson's works, which suggest terms of a deep relevance with the subject matter discussed in this study, among which are 'struggle' and 'slavery' which point to issues of great significance, and which can provide a rich subject pool for scholars.Slavery cannot always be easily recognized, because the outer "shell" of slavery sometimes conceals its inner reality and much as the racism in "Fences" emerges in light of the fact that the characters are inconsistent with the way they see the past and what they need to do with what is to come.For instance, Troy Maxson and his child Cory see Cory's future contrarily in light of the mode they decipher their own past experience.Troy does not need Cory to encounter the hardships and disillusionments Troy had felt when attempting to become expert sportsman, so he requires Cory to work after school as an alternative of involved in the football team.
Cory, nevertheless, sees that circumstances have transformed since the baseball group has banned a player as skilled as Troy because of his skin color.Wilson's characters show certain adjustments in their characters and states of mind toward life and the different situations which their activities and behaviors are subjected to.The way that Rose needs the fence to be constructed enhances importance to her character since she observes the fence as something optimistic and fundamental.Bono sees that Rose needs to build the fence in order to grasp in her friends and family.To Rose, a fence is an image of her affection and her longing for a fence demonstrates that Rose speaks to love and sustaining.Troy and Cory, however, feel that the fence is a drag and reluctantly chip away at completing Rose's request.Bono additionally sees that, for a few people, walls are made to keep individuals out and thrust them away.Bono shows that Troy pushes Rose far from him by tricking her.Troy's lack of responsibility regarding the completion of the fence resembles his lack of sense of duty in his marriage.
According to Ladrica Menson-Furre, one of the reasons for the popularity of "Fences" is its universal themes, of which the father-son conflict is central.Slavery through Wilson's understanding has been clarified through seeking identity and the acknowledgement of African American identity.Wilson's opinion is that the acceptance of the African-Americans is an African issue, as he refuses the idea that slavery has eliminated African culture.He also trusts that since the years of slavery up until the current century, African Americans have been acquiring significant elements of the African consciousness.

The Piano Lesson
It is obvious that Wilson's dramatic works are realistic in the sense that he endeavors to depict the kind of life, which he himself has experienced and observed among his fellow men.As Abu-Baker stated: "Wilson's plays can be regarded as realistic arenas presenting various models of some male African Americans in different ages and careers reflecting the utmost elements and dimensions portraying an overall image of the black man " (Abu-Baker, 2012: 8)."The Piano Lesson" focuses on an African-American family's fight with its former experiences in life in an attempt to secure their future.The play is set in the 1936 Pittsburgh, which is a point in time close to the end of the Great Depression.The image of the piano is a dominant one in the play, which works as the play's dominant representation of black culture and of the vital struggle among the characters of the play.
In African American drama, the conventional highlight on social personality has been constantly unmistakable.Additionally, there is the claim to have a legitimate black culture communicated with unmistakable susceptibility.This highlight can be found in Wilson's play "the Piano Lesson", which reveals Wilson's mind-boggling perspective concerning the past, and which focuses on the modern South of America, slavery, and Africa itself.It is only by accepting Africanism that the Afro-American would finally achieve a feeling of personality and grasp of who they are.To Wilson, the past "provides an original oneness as the essence of being, of life," and he declares that the problem lies in "the problematic role of inheritance in African American history and culture" (Jeff, 2006: 557).
Despite the historical exodus from Africa, Wilson views that there is a susceptibility among the African Americans; he pursues the integration of different issues to be included in his play "The Piano Lesson".Most of Wilson's plays are centered on characters in search of their own individuality, of their melody, and most importantly in search of a feeling of belonging in the world in which they are living.Wilson introduces the African American culture through the regular individual encounters between conventional black characters and the normal society.He believes this to be a thing one can get from history books.His main anxiety stems from "the struggle and survival of black cultural values in the midst of a hostile white culture: the message of America is to leave your Africanism outside the door.My message is Claim what is yours'' (Al-ghanimi, 2012: 39-40).
It may be indicated that "A true sense of Africanism is obviously dramatized through the conflict between Berniece and Boy Willie over the piano, the past as evoking the present and the future'' (Al-ghanimi, 2012:41).Through the photos that are cut on the piano by their predecessors, the piano represents the Charles family and their past, particularly, the historical background of oppression.
In "The Piano Lesson", the reasonable change begins and ends with the image of the piano itself.From a stereotypical point of view, Wilson has formed the piano as an instrument that gives the blacks a role as artists in their world.In "Two Trains Running" the author highlights two societies, African and American, which as the play unfolds, will each overwhelm the other.
For both Berniece and Boy Willie, the piano speaks to their legacy; in any case, their ways of using it are extraordinary.Kid Willie needs to offer the piano, so he can purchase Sutter's property, the property on which his precursors have drudged to death back in the South.He also knows about its emblematic importance, particularly when his dad wanted to purchase that land from his white owner.This play is a report of those earth-shattering occasions in African-American history.Past that, it appears to pose the following inquiries: How do black individuals make use of their history?On what method would this social legacy be based upon?"The Piano Lesson" reveals Wilson's idea of the past, which focuses on the modern South of America and the slave time.The piano calls for an urgent investigation of the racial character in light of the fact that one's point of view of the piano identifies with his racialized memory."For several years, "The Piano Lesson", the colorful characters, festering family conflict, and illusory ghost immediately capture the attention of the students, into the reading comprehension process which requires visualization, application of prior knowledge, and prediction" (Dorsey, 2003: 1-2).
The characters are presented as stereotypes, "Although the characters in "Fences" are all black and the barriers created by racial prejudice are a major theme of the play, the relationship between husband and wife seems to transcend race entirely" (Bennette, 1987: 2).What will happen to the piano?Wilson had offered a framework, Pittsburgh, with a complete value system of hopes and fears associated to this place.A migration led the play's main character from the post-reconstruction South to this great city of the North where, attracted by the melting-pot promise, they had hoped to build a new identity for themselves.Contrary to their expectations, the spiritual conflict of double consciousness has emerged with renewed power, as the migrants are isolated from homes, families, and rural culture; "the ghost of slavery has continued to possess their thoughts" (Lewis, & Elizabeth, 2008:17).
Wilson was evasive in displaying the time of the action, so this play serves as a window into the African American experience in the segregated place where they were living.The major image in the play is the 137-year old piano, an article that personifies the history of a family.It is blessed because it was bought through slave trade, and originally represents the compatibility of an individual and an article that forms a significant bondage.Their great-grandfather carved within this unique piano some family portraits and he gave his life trying to reclaim it as a powerful symbol of the family's heritage.Wilson tries to insert in "The Piano Lesson" a "story of an African American family, subject to all the past political injustices of slavery" (Dorsey, 2003: 2).
Wilson finds his artistic voice, and begins to appreciate the black voices of Pittsburgh.He says that the blacks can observe the essence of their lives throughout their artistic capabilities, as they begin to feel that their spirits are elevated through their artistic attempt such as drama, which is closely related to the audiences.
The emotional focus stays on the black characters while also integrating those of whites, even in their inexistence, since the whites surround and control the lives and abilities of the black characters.He adds that he has different philosophical ideas and ways to respond to the world and that even the way he acts in life and society is different from that of the white people."The Piano" Lesson is a document of the African-American involvement in the twentieth century.It has portrayed the black experience of the 1930s America, the time of the Great Depression, and he also stresses upon the impacts of the Great Migration that brought so many blacks north to manufacturing cities such as Pittsburgh in search of jobs, as well as the impacted of being exploited and abused by the white people.It is significant to Wilson, to display the features of the African American legend as an original component in the African-American traditional civilizations.

Two Trains Running
It can be suggested "Wilson highlights the quest of identity, knowing and accepting one's identity," which "gives life, hope and direction to one's life" (Abu-Baker, 2012: 10).The action of the play takes place in the Hill District, an African-American district in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1969.Wilson portrays in a realistic manner the way in which the blacks were exploited by the whites.As he "approaches race with a distinctive strategy, since the whites behave with the blacks on the base of the differences in colors, it is not only a behavioral source of weakness as being exploited and enslaved by whites, but rather a historical source of strength since blacks have neither been enslaving nor exploiting others" (Abu-Baker, 2012: 11-12).
The play investigates the social and mental appearances of the changing states of mind toward race from the point of view of urban blacks.It is about a gathering of African Americans who interact with each other and struggle to survive.Some of the characters battle for individual issues like dependence on earning cash; others struggle due to other issues such as obligation."Two Trains Running" is a trip through African-American culture; investigating matters, for example, cash, passing, mental self-view, equity, and raising bigotry issues: "This play has captured a racially divided country as it came apart" (Rich, 1992: 2).For Wilson, the basic means of keeping African American culture is the blues, which he regards as a philosophical system.
Wilson's personality looks for the acknowledgment of African American character, the acknowledgment of the way that the identity of African-Americans ought to be connected "to Africa, to who we are" (Freedman, 1989:40).Within his rejection of the hypothesis that servitude annihilated African culture.He trusts that the huge migration of southern blacks to the North is not appropriate, and that it has been a mistake.Thus, the play particularly presents a strong economic theme, which points to a series of false, broken, or unfulfilled contracts made by the whites with the African Americans: "The liveliest talkers in "Two Trains Running" are members of an older generation skeptical of all externally applied panaceas, secular and religious" (Rich, 1992: 4) .This play has been considered one of Wilson's most prominent political products telling of what has happened during the black power movement, at the time of upheavals in the US race relations.Seeking to escape poverty, racism, and the segregators of the "Jim Crow" laws, many black Americans had travelled to northern industrial towns during the early and mid-20th century.
Most of the black Americans have worked in agriculture and moved north could expect higher wages and a larger number of conceivable outcomes for social headway than they may acquire in the South.In addition, bigotry in the North is less savage and obvious than in the South, however it is still present.Wilson culturally deals with the issue of African American life as a long lasting touch and cure."(Shamal, 2012: 11).

Conclusion
This paper traced the origins of racism and the manner in which it affected African American Literature.In addition to this, it gave a historical background to these terms from the age of Phyllis Wheately to August Wilson.The paper also expressed that racism exists when one ethnic gathering or verifiable collectivity commands, prohibits, or looks to take out another gathering on the premise of contrasts that the first group accepts are genetic and unalterable.He trusts that the huge migration of southern blacks to the North is not appropriate, and that it has been a mistake.Thus, the play particularly presents a strong economic theme, which points to a series of false, broken, or unfulfilled contracts made by the whites with the African Americans: "The liveliest talkers in "Two Trains Running" are members of an older generation skeptical of all externally applied panaceas, secular and religious".Wilson intends to attribute a voice to those oppressed groups.He aims to enrich African-American history with valuable themes and aspects.He does not only attempt to make out of his drama a history book for black Americans, so as to make them think deeply about their past and present life, but he also uses this as way of thinking about their future and their dreams.