Dutchman is a play by Amiri Baraka; is a one-act drama set in a train. Dutchman's debut took place at the Cherry Lane theater in New York, more precisely in Greenwich Village. The date of its debut was March 1964; on the date of its debut it also won an Off-Broadway Award or the Obie Award. In short, this comedy features an African American man named Clay who is on a train. On this train there is a woman called Lula, she is older than Clay and she is white. Lula attempts to sexually seduce Clay and when Clay doesn't engage in her flirtatious banter and merely gives her short responses, she begins to provoke him. He begins dancing around the train racially harassing Clay. He throws her to the ground, slaps her and then screams at her. As he gets up, she stabs him in the heart and asks the other people on the train to get rid of his body. There are many themes in this play such as identity confusion, anti-semitism, manipulation and of course racism. The focus and aspect of the work that will be addressed in this essay is the racial aspect of the work. More specifically, the way the characters are portrayed in relation to each other, the conflict between blacks and whites, and the social "weight" that the two conflicting races have. The characters in the play are both rendered very uniquely from each other. Clay is a young African American who studied at college and seems to the public to be a normal and kind person. Lula is in her 30s, very attractive and white. A deeper look into her character reveals that she is very manipulative and towards the end of the play the audience might even come to the conclusion that she is a bit mentally unstable. The racial dynamic between these two main characters; his being white... at the center of the card... whites had dominance over African Americans and respect from peers of the same race. Clay should have been subservient to Lula; which represents an African American submissive to a white person. In Summation there were many themes that Amiri Baraka had incorporated into his play Dutchman. One particular aspect that Baraka placed particular emphasis on was racial issues between blacks and whites. This conflict was shown through the actions of Clay and Lula, both characters were portrayed in very contrasting ways even compared to their own stereotypes. Baraka presented the conflict between black and white through Lula's treatment of Clay and his response to said treatment along with his death. Finally, to further instill the importance of race in Dutchman, Lula and Clay's roles in society are displayed through their conversations, environment, and actions..