The Negotiation of Power - the Escape; Or, a Leap for Freedom by William Wells Brown

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From the play, several issues regarding how power is established and taken emerge. Firstly, a racist finds racism a powerful tool when it came to negotiating for power and influence. However, failing to take the racists’ bait is important when it comes to winning power back from them. Tapping into feelings of vanity of those in a position of power is often sufficient in winning power back, just like Ma did to Levee. Racism was therefore like a double-edged sword. While racist people used it as a tool in seeking to exert influence over black people, black people used it as a card to stick it to them, using the mirror strategy to show exactly how grotesque racism looked like from the perspective of those that practiced it.

Dutchman by LeRoi Jones

In this play, Jones depicts the thorny relationships between black and white people in the 1960s, which were characterized by above all, racism. Just like in Wilson’s play that has been discussed above, racism was destructive not by its mere existence, but because it was a tool for exercising power over back people. However, unlike in Wilson’s play, the effects of racism in this play were extensive because they led to the ultimate death of the victim.

Before delving deeper, it is important for the reader to be advised that this analysis focuses on the end of the play, from the point that Clay goes into a monologue, showing sincere anger for the very first time in the play. He burst out, saying that white people deceive black people into feeling comfortable while dancing into “black” music (Jones, 1977). He asserts that this serves to keep black people busy creating and living a life that was inferior to that of white people, all while feeling happy about it. At this point, Lula already had Clay at her fingertips. One of the most destructive effects of racism is that it could trigger equally ugly reactions, by making black people equally hostile towards white people. When this happens, the stage was set for destruction because a vicious circle of hatred had been cultivated. White racist people like Lula provoked black people by mocking and despising them because of their race. On the other hand, black people would respond in kind, creating a chain reaction of racism and counter racism. In this dynamic, it is clear who had the power: the one who initiated the series of provocations.

In her series of maneuvers, Lula had succeeded in her mission, which was to stir animosity and anger in Clay by acting in a racially provocative manner. Clay had therefore fallen for Lula’s tricks and was behaving in the exact way that she would have wanted. She felt powerful over him by the very fact that she could provoke him to act violently. Racism was all about making black people feel inferior to white people. Lula had already succeeded in doing so. However, she achieved much more than she could have hoped for, because Clay went further, telling himself that in order to end all the racism, black people could simply kill all the white people. However, he quickly rubbishes that evil thought, saying that he would rather be ignorant of the problem than kill white people in order to eradicate racism. But it was too little too late, because Lula stabs him twice in the heart and tells other passengers to dispose his body.

All along, Lula had evil plans and she intended to harm Clay, but she did not want to be so direct. After Clay could not fall for her seductive charms, she provoked him by mocking the very fact that he was black. Here, Jones tried – and I say successfully – to make a point; that racism was used to “put back people in their place,” by making them behave in a certain predictable manner (Jones, 1977). If you can predict how an individual will act once you act or speak in a certain manner to them, then you have all the power over them. This is how power and influence was exercised through racism. Lula managed to get under Clay’s skin; she negotiated her way into his dark side by simply mocking his race, and she succeeded in accomplishing her mission, which was to get him to confess his deep disaffection with white people so that she could kill him.

Unlike in the two other plays whereby the powerless party managed to get their power back, or create options for response that were indicative of power, Clay is completely overpowered by Lula. He completely falls for her tricks, acts in the manner that she wanted and even loses his life in the process. She defeated him in detail. While not employing crude techniques like those of Dr. Gaines, the slave master in The Escape, she somehow succeeds in achieving more devastating results, by orchestrating the death of Clay. From the play, it becomes clear that a mild tool like racism – mild at least when compared to slavery – could have lethal effects. Jones shows in Dutchman that not all people reclaim their power once they have lost it. Just like Clay, they could part with their lives in the process, signifying the peak of loss and powerlessness. In the dynamics of power, some gain it while others lose it, never to recover it again. There is no grater loss of power than loosing ones’ life, like Clay did.

Conclusion

From the analysis above, which employed illustrations from three plays, the dynamics of power that determined how it was negotiated are examined in great detail. Both racism and slavery were powerful ways of wilding power, especially in the social context. This especially applies when power is defined in terms of influence. This explains why the two vices of racism and slavery persisted for so long despite being generally condemned, privately and publicly – slavery may not have been highly condemned in the South, but it was not widely publicly endorsed either. As can be deduced from the plays, racism was in fact a strategy in gaining mileage in negotiations, which involved black people, because it was meant to frighten them into believing that they deserved less. Slavery was worse, because it meant that black people were denied their humanity by being treated like commodities, which could be exchanged in a market. Through drama, these power dynamics culminating into how power was gained, lost and regained are laid bare.

References

Brown, W. W. (2010). The Escape; Or, a Leap for Freedom: A Drama in Five Acts. New York, NY : Cosimo, Inc.

Jones, L. (1977). Dutchman: A Play. London : Faber & Faber.

Wilson, A. (2007). Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. New York, NY: Theatre Communications Group.