Black Characters in Search of Reality

                In Brent Staples’s essay “Black Characters in Search of Reality” (2012), he claims that African Americans play roles in many of today’s dramatic works that are commonly stereotypical. He supports his claim by describing how African Americans are imaged in many advertisements, and provides examples of roles played by African American actors and actresses in dramatic works. Staples’s purpose of this essay is to acknowledge various roles played by African Americans in order to stress the fact that there is a continuous pattern of the roles played. Brent Staples’s audience could be African American population, as well as many African American actors and actresses.

                This text provided me insight on this played by African Americans that I never took into consideration. I could relate to the text because of the examples he provided, one being about Hattie McDaniel. Being that I read “Gone with the Wind” myself, I could relate to his statements about her being African American and winning an Oscar for playing a maid, as well as the two actresses from “The Help”. Overall, I was very pleased with this text because of the comparisons he used to identify how the African American community is perceived as today.

                Brent Staples wrote this text in order to analyze how African Americans are viewed thorough dramatic arts. Comparing their affluence on billboards to their roles in movies and plays, he states that these arts are “rooted in a narrow past view of African American life” (149). As many movies and plays contain African American maids, the Black communities are upset by the stereotypical views of their race. Although praised for their astounding roles played, Staples indicates the growing “hunger” for demonstrating decent Black lifestyles, and how it was finally shown in Lydia Diamond’s “Stick Fly” (150). This was one play that officially satisfied and entertained large Black audiences, giving them the credit that they deserved.