Stereotypes In Fences, By August Wilson

Thinkers Connected By Their Ideas
August Wilson, author of Fences, uses a plethora of characters who all face a disadvantage within America during the 1950s and 1960s. He teaches the idea that a person's options throughout life are not limitless like they once believed, but that there are other forces at play, other limiting factors that close down choices within their life. All characters within this play portray a sort of factored issue that causes options to be closed. Wilson also introduces stereotypes by discussing racial dilemmas, sexist ideals, and patriarchal issues. These stereotypes presented show the disadvantages that each character can face within the play.
Fences starts out in the late 1950s and takes place in a beaten-down house

As Rankine indicated in her essay, there is a lack of empathy within the status quo of a society that does not allow people with certain differences to fit in. These differences can be gender, race, sexual orientation, disabilities, etc. She explains, “Anti-black racism is in the culture. It’s in our laws, in our advertisements, in our friendships, in our segregated cities, in our schools, in our Congress, in our scientific experiments, in our language, on the Internet, in our bodies no matter our race, in our communities, and perhaps most devastatingly, in our justice system.” A type of racism specifically against black Americans can be found even within the justice system of this country. Rankine wants readers to understand that there was once a time that this country was fond of white supremacy and that no matter how much work is put into a movement to respect and give blacks equality, all of society cannot move on from its past. She also wrote that for a black person, especially a mother, everyday decisions must be made with careful thought and consideration, allowing the idea that black women have lived a lot harder just by being a different race and gender than the ideal, to come out of her writing. She also introduces a new idea that to normalize a situation, people tend to centralize whiteness, which promotes the stigmatization of blacks. In Wilson’s play, Rose is the only black woman main character who struggles with cultural racism from her husband's perspective. She sees how her husband, Troy, is treated because of the color of his skin at work and she lives in a higher poverty area. Rose sees the neighborhood she lives in and the way her family struggles with money. There isn’t an act or scene in the play where Rose faces a racist comment from a white person or racist persecution in an