Dutchman by Amiri Baraka encompasses the worst of fears as a New York commuter taking the subway daily - a murder on the train. When I moved to New York in 2021, my family’s daily mantra became, “Be safe.” I lived in Flatbush before moving to Harlem, and though there are frequent red and blue lights, I have felt warm and welcome in both communities. Though the passenger rate is still 40% below pre-pandemic rates, the police presence echoes in the subway. This hasn’t stopped crime from rising; 169 felony assaults have been reported this year as of April 16th, not including the victims of the N train attack on April 12th.
Baraka’s subway takes us beneath New York on a passage of life to death, in concrete tunnels rather than over water, with Lula, our white woman provocateur, as Clay’s captor, himself a Black man trying to complete his own journey of meeting up with a friend for a party.
There are few, treasured moments when I’ve been able to have a train car to myself (though underground, it is not always a secure feeling to be alone). But on this hot day in the 60’s, the scarcely populated car is relished by Clay, who is already futile in fanning himself with his paper. Like most people, the only interaction one will tolerate on a hot day when you are just trying to get to your destination is attraction. From the start, Lula intentionally catches Clay’s eye, and keeps it, try as he might not to, much like I try not to egg on the street car dancers when I don’t have any cash to tip.
There is a baseline of public politeness that Clay follows in the beginning after his initial curiosity, then he can’t seem to get himself out of it. He stays there, eventually taking on Lula as his responsibility. It is not his duty to continue talking to her, yet he continues to engage, even when she goes into her mimicry of Blackness. Is it intrigue or ennui? He doesn’t have a phone to escape to feign an important task or call. Lula certainly is drawing eyes, aptly dressed for the weather in skimpy clothing, approaching this Black man who is dressed in a higher fashion. Despite the difference in dress, alluding to the difference in class, she knows she still holds the upper hand. While they both have instances where they ignore each other, they always circle back to each other. She will not let go of her grasp, and Clay plays into it, at one point kissing at her fingers and egging her on before reason kicks in and frustrations finally reach the degree of the air in the train.
For safety, and to beat the very same heat Baraka’s characters endure, loved ones that don’t live in the city urge me to take a rideshare service often, but prices regularly surge and the costs add up quickly, let alone accounting for the severely high homeless and poor population who often can’t afford the $2.75 fare (these characters would have paid 15-20 cents then, but regardless - public transportation should be free!). I understand their worries, but those who have never experienced big city life have this skewed view of commuting. 99% of the time, I feel safe. Then again, I unintentionally stereotype people I encounter, more out of safety than stirring up conflict like Lula, and try to mind my business without responding to provocations, like Clay.
Truly, I can’t say what I might have done in Clay’s shoes. A Black woman in the 60’s New York might have clapped back at Lula, who no doubt would have still incited some incident, sexual or not. Womanist and Black feminist movements were at heights more in the 80’s, but second-wave feminism is taking place during our story, and as always, Black women had to stand for themselves as most white women kept themselves separate (even in New York, where “everyone is supposed to be free”). Would I have snapped back rhetoric at Lula, pushed back against her taunts, or waited as still as possible until the next stop to make a quick exit? Who knows what the underground heated, long journey would spur me to do, just as before his end, a mixture of heat and rage erupts out of Clay.
To what level do we mind our own business before we intervene? No matter the circumstance, we should always advocate for a fellow human being wronged. The Black and white passengers here do not act until the end to carry out Clay’s body, tossing him overboard at the captor’s command. Do the Black passengers believe he been spared a life of further discrimination; or are they all merely following the whims of a woman who wields her power?
No matter who was the terrorist in recent subway attacks, Baraka has shown the results when the attacker in society is a white woman, and the one stabbed looks like me. Lula’s character, however, would have unleashed her power trip on anyone afraid to fight back. I have no doubt that today Lula would be a contributing signal to flashing red and blue lights.
Sources:
https://nypost.com/2022/04/16/nyc-subway-crime-skyrocketing-with-robberies-up-72/ https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/04/12/nyregion/brooklyn-subway-shooting https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/news/p00044/nypd-citywide-crime-statistics-april-2022 https://transportgeography.org/contents/chapter8/urban-transport-challenges/subway-fare-new-york/