August Wilson and Rasism

Ever since the civil war, African Americans have been struggling to maintain an equality with everyone else. They weren't just fighting to sit at a certain place on a bus, or the right to vote. They wanted to be treated like human beings. There were certain people that basic human rights were awarded to at birth, they just got them. Others, human rights are still being fought for, and it's a vicious, bloody fight. Recently, the fights have been a little more subtle-African Americans aren't fighting for their right to go to the same schools as whites, but they are still aware that are people that don't think they should have those rights. Women are still fighting for their right to make as much as men. Homosexual couples are fighting tooth and nail for the right to get married. It seems, in America, there always has to be a time where someone is being oppressed. When August Wilson was writing his plays, he focused on the African American culture in America, and how they were oppressed, and also how their culture was different from the culture that we're used to now.

Fences follows Troy Maxon, a middle aged black man, who is married to Rose, and has three children, each from different women. Troy is enraged that, being an African American, he

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can't drive the garbage trucks at work-even though he cannot read, and doesn't even have his driver's license. He doesn’t seem to be a bad person, at heart. He gives Lyons, his son from his first marriage, money whenever he asks, but the money does not come without a price. Troy complains to Lyons that he is never going to get the money back, although, later on in the play, we do see Lyons pay his father back. His friend, Bono, begins questioning Troy, because he thinks Troy is having an affair with Alberta, a woman from Tallahassee. We soon find out that Bono's suspicious are true-Alberta gets pregnant, and then gives birth to, Troy's third child, Raynell. Troy's dreams were dashed when he was young, because