Adapting Ambiguous America; or, per-Forming a More Perfect Union in the Plays of Caridad Svich and Suzan-Lori Parks

Year 2009, Issue: 29, 99 - 112, 01.04.2009

Jodi Vanderhorn-gibson

Abstract

From the inception of the United States, race has been a supremely defining characteristic for both the inhabitants of the colonies, and for the face of the nation itself. Those who were white, male, and Western European wrote: “We the People, in order to form a more perfect union . . .” while those who were indigenous were “Americanized” or simply annihilated, and while those who were black were imported and exported along with the sugar and the tobacco. In these supposedly “post-race” days, the United States continues to grapple with the “race line” as Dr. Du Bois called it—as evidenced through the focus on race in the 2008 Presidential Election. In as late as October, political pundits were claiming that President-elect Obama’s mixed racial heritage would ultimately provide him with a second place finish on November 4th, indicating that a vast number of the people of the United States would be unable, even in this 21st century world, to look beyond “race” as it has been traditionally drawn and invented. Through Alch

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