that happened at that time in the U. S.. The writer finds further possible historical evidence related to racial stereotyping in the utterance below
LULA. ‘Cause you’re an escaped nigger.
CLAY. Yeah? LULA.
‘Cause you crawled through the wire and made track to my side. CLAY. Wire?
LULA. Don’t they have wire around plantations?
CLAY. You must be Jewish. All you can think about is wire. Plantations didn’t have any wire. Plantations were big open whitewashed places
like heaven, and everybody on ‘em was grooved to be there. Just strummin’ and hummin’ all day Baraka, p. 8
From the excerpt above, it can be concluded that Lula is trying to stereotypes
African American people history as slaves on Clay. Through her statement about wire, Lula is trying to ridicule Clay of his
“slave origins”, as we know African American people have a very long history of slavery and her sarcasm about going
out of the wire and plantation may most likely be related to that certain part of history.
Along with his responses toward Lula’s statement, it shows how Clay replies it nicely as a common conversation.
The statement above takes the writer back to Aguirre ’s statement that “...
stereotypes portrayed Africans as ignorant, lazy, and immoral. ... which portrayed black people as childlike, helpless, shuffling and fumbling but with potentially
aggressive t endencies.” Aguirre, 2010: 110 which can be seen from Lula’s
statement regarding escaped nigger, meaning a slave. Yet, through her statements that Lula says to Clay, it can be seen that she sees Clay in such ways like a
childlike and helpless Black man. She controls the “game” toward him through
conversation just like parents use toys to lure their children into doing what they want.
4. Lula’s Statement of Racial Stereotyping Regarding to Belly Rub
By adding more and more racial stereotypes toward Clay, she also mentions and mocks some labels or persons for the purpose of upsetting Clay.
There is one statement that Lula says during her dancing and singing blues scene, asking Clay to join her
LULA . . . . And that’s how the blues was born. Yes. Yes. . . Let’s do the
nasty. Rub bellies. Rub bellies. ... Come on, Clay . . . let’s do the thing.
Uhh Uhh Clay Clay You middle-class black bastard. Forget your social-
working mother for a few seconds and let’s knock stomachs. Clay, you liver-lipped white man. You would-
be Christian. You ain’t no nigge
r, you’re just a dirty white man. Get up, Clay. Dance with me, Clay.
CLAY. Lula Sit down, now. Be cool. LULA. [Mocking him, in wild dance]. B
e cool. Be cool. That’s all you know . . . shaking the wild root cream-oil on your knotty head, jackets
buttoning up to your chin , so full of white man’s words. Christ God
Get up and scream at these people. Like scream meaningless shit in these hopeless faces. Baraka, p. 8
Clay seems to calm Lula down, her speech humiliates him. Yet he starts to feel annoyed instead of having awareness of what she says about him. The argument
about belly rub is a severe critique on White American ’s propensity to try to
appropriate to themselves anything they find interesting in another culture, often inadequately but with the pretension to know what they are doing. “Belly rub”
nowadays like in the 1960s had a sexual meaning. However the term applies in Dutchman to a sexy dance practiced at the
time mostly by African Americans on particular occasions and rather than exclusive circles. Just like boogie-woogi
e, the style caught White American’s eye because of its originality and sensuality.
5. Lula’s Statement of Racial Stereotyping Regarding to Uncle Thomas
Lula statements about belly rub does not make her satisfied enough in mocking, humiliating, and discriminating Clay in front of the passangers, who
most of them are Lula’s people. Another statement labelling African Americans with a racial stereotype to mock Clay, was when Lula called Clay an Uncle
Thomas. LULA. Screw yourself, Uncle Tom. Thomas Woolly-Head. . . . There is
Uncle Tom . . . I mean, Uncle Tom Woolly-Head. With old white matted mane. He hobbles on his wooden cane. Old Tom. Old Tom. Let
the white man hump his ol’ mama, and he jes’ shuffle off the woods and hide his gentle grey h
ead. Ol’ Thomas Woolly-Head” Baraka, p. 8. “Uncle Thomas” has become a racist Black stereotype since the story of Uncle
Tom was published in 1852 by Harriet Beecher, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
The novel tells about the life of Uncle Tom as a slave. He is a well educated slave and very obedient to his slave master so he does not get into too much trouble. On
a moment, Tom is sold to another slave owner because his slave master had to pay off a debt that he owed. He begins to work hard so he can become a free man
because he wants to get back to his family and live a normal life again. As the writer finds out more about Uncle Tom, he is quite an overeager
Black person to win the approval of the whites. Yet for Lula, the mockery about Uncle Tom is her way to disgrace Clay in front of people in the train, especially
her white people. She knows exactly her position, she feels inferior and surrounded by another inferiors, the white people. Lula is taking further advantage
of Clay to dig out his real identity through such ways include stereotyping and discriminating against his race.
