Clybourne Park

      Last week, as I'm sure all of you know, we saw the play Clybourne Park, a comedy that deals with issues of race. When I thought about the play afterward, the scene that thing that struck me the most was the contrast between the final scene of the play, the one in which the son is writing his suicide letter, to the scene just beforehand, the humorous racist-joke scene. The joke scene was the funniest of the play, while the suicide-letter scene was the most serious and somber. In the first situation, a huge fight erupts out of a slight perception of racism, while in the second scene a tragedy unfolds unnoticed and unseen. The stark contrast between the scenes seems to almost be an accusation; people become upset, and pay attention to issues of race, while ignoring a real and terrible tragedy. Race shouldn’t matter, and there is an obsession about differences that are only superficial, that aren’t important at all in the grand scheme of things. In the meantime, true tragedies unfold unacknowledged. Recently allegations surfaced that Herman Cain had sexually harassed several women while working as the head of the National Restaurant Association; it wasn’t long before some accused those who reported on the claims as racists. Meanwhile, an article in the New York Times today reported on three children who had been beaten to death over the past several years by parents who had read a Tennessee pastor’s book on using corporal punishment on children. That is the sort of tragedy that goes unacknowledged for years, while people focus on race, and other things not deserving of attention.