Prejudice And Racism In Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park

Although Clybourne Park received some mixed reviews, Critic David Rooney had almost completely positive opinions about the play and its power to render the audience uncomfortable. Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park is one of the few works where leaving the audience squirming in their seats is a compliment. David Rooney elaborates on this idea in his review of the play published in The Hollywood Reporter. Rooney establishes in the first paragraph what he feels Norris's ultimate goal was in writing Clybourne Park. He refers to the play as a satire of the deep prejudices Americans cannot escape. Norris presents the idea that although we have progressed diplomatically on the surface, we still have the same issues with race in modern America. Rooney
The act begins with incessant, random chatter as tensions build. Similar issues present themselves for the characters. Lena assertively defends the historical value of the property. Steve continues to dig himself into a hole of social blunder. Kevin flares under the racist implications. Lindsey attempts to sound as far from racist as possible. Again, if the audience manages to follow all the drama, they will notice the irony presented in this act. Although the modern characters strive to be politically correct, their racism comes off as more blunt and harsh. Their need to point out that they are not racist makes them seem even more racist. Rooney accurately refers to Norris as mischievous as he compares racism pre-political correctness and post-political correctness. Rooney states that Norris is showing that we cannot manage to talk about race without "putting our foot in our mouth." We effectively avoid solving the problem by being to wary to discuss it or by accusing others when we do bring the word "racism" into the conversation. Rooney also proposes an interesting idea I had not previously considered. The references to etymology and world languages further demonstrate the characters need to concentrate on