The Colored Museum By George C Wolfe

George C. Wolfe’s, The Colored Museum, uses the play dynamic in order to create, celebrate, and critique the African American past and future. The African American legacy is carefully dissected in an almost carefree attitude about the impacts it had on the people. The Colored Museum explores the ideas of African American. George C. Wolfe uses clever wit to say the unthinkable about a serious topic, which leaves the audience in an uncomfortable ruin. The audience is left to navigate though each Act with an apprehensive attitude about what.t it might hold. Therefore, the book leaves the audience questioning stereotypes present. Simple comedy might be seen as you read through the pages of the text. However, the reproduction of racial stereotypes …show more content…
From the opening scene of the play, the black experience of slavery is being seemed as funny. The ride of the slave ship takes the reader through a timeline of oppression. Wolfe writes in a lackadaisical attitude, “ All right, so you’re gonna have to suffer for a few hundred years, but from your pain will come a culture so complex…and you’ll become millionaires.”(Wolfe, pg.4) First, this quote represents the adherent struggle ahead of the black people that they can 't see. The hundred years of struggle are just a simple overview of black history, starting from the deepest depths. However, he transitions from slavery to becoming a basketball player. This direct comparison shows the so call “value” of an African American. In present day, society wants to put certain stigmas on people. For the people of color, they are known to be aggressive, athletic, and strong. These are the only characteristics that they are seen as holding. Through basketball, many African Americans have become popular or millionaires. Therefore, there is …show more content…
However, this scene causes more pain for me than it does positivity. The scene represents the idea of escaping your past in order to find hope. One must reject everything they ever knew for glamour. One of the most impactful quotes to me was presented in this section. Wolfe strongly writes, “Yes, we live in a world where everyone is beautiful, and wears fabulous clothes…and no one says anything profound. ....or meaningful....or contradictory.”(Wolfe, pg. 9) This quote could sum up my entire childhood. I grew up in an urban neighborhood in the northeast part of Atlanta, commonly known as Buckhead. Buckhead is an affluent uptown district of Atlanta, which serves as a major commercial and financial center of Atlanta. The idea of the neighborhood was to express your importance through clothes, cars, and your house. The person with the biggest house or the nicest car always receives the highest praises. Everybody always liked putting together and never seemed to be having a bad day. There were no struggles going on in their families or in society as a whole. The black experience was always being viewed as positive and uplifting. The idea of being black and fabulous had been always present. My sister was put into the Jack and Jill Of America club, which single handily, tried to destroy her intellect. A mothers base club that allowed their daughters to experience