Race Relations (M5D1)

Race Relations
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Race Relations
‘The Telephone Conversation’ by Wole Soyinka and ‘On the Subway’ by Sharon Olds explore the issue of race relations albeit in different time settings. The latter provides a historical perspective on how whites regard blacks. In contrast, the former addresses the issue of racism, as practiced by both whites and blacks due to a failure to communicate with each other. However, in both poems the blacks are judged on the basis of the color of their skin. For example, in the former poem the landlady asks how dark the tenant is after he reveals that he is a Black American while in the latter poem, the white lady thinks that the youth across from her is a mugger merely because he is black.
In both instances the failure to communicate leaves both parties worse off than they could otherwise have been. The tenant confuses the landlady, more as he attempts to explain the degree of his blackness while the white lady in the train thinks that the young man has an easy life because of the color of his skin while in reality he suffers because of it. Moreover, both poems are an indictment of the desire to judge people based on outward factors as opposed to what is really in their souls. The use of the word ‘ subway’ in ‘On the Subway’ suggests that those prejudices still exist.
The two poems hav...