Willful Ignorance in Les BlancsRace relations are a constant effort at mutual identification. However, it is difficult to identify with another race when one is unable or unwilling to learn about the other. Although Charlie and Tshembe both have experience with Western culture, there still remains a sense of ignorance between the two. Despite Charlie's desire to build a bridge between himself and Tshembe, their relationship never goes beyond the superficial, higher level. Part of this is due to their stubbornness, but there are many other factors that contribute to the breakdown of their relationship. Charlie and Tshembe's ignorance of each other's culture and individual personality remains constant not because it cannot be overcome, but because of their reluctance to admit and shed their own ignorance. While many would attribute ignorance of another race to a white person, it is ironically Tshembe who fulfills the first blatantly cultural stereotype. He tells Charlie, “American frankness is almost as disarming as Americans invariably think it is” (Hansberry 73). This statement immediately tells Charlie that he will be classified as little more than an American by Tshmebe and that it may be difficult for the two to form a relationship. This reversal of the characters' stereotypical roles in ignorance is also evident in the form of Tshembe's defensive assumptions about Charlie. After Tshembe defensively responds to one of Charlie's questions, saying that he has only one wife, Tshembe says, "It may be, Mr. Morris, that I have developed counterhypotheses because I have had... too many long, lo-o- However, the long "talks" in which the white intellectual begins by suggesting not only brotherhood but the universal damnation of the little devil... common ground is not enough. Both groups must be willing to make change to accommodate the ongoing relationship. Ignorance is part of any racial relationship and will almost always exist, regardless of precautions taken to prevent it. If a bridge between races is to be built, people must recognize the importance of differences. They should realize that differences are not something that will harm or it will destroy race relations, but what allows races to exist. A dialogue between races does not instead imply the need to unite cultures, people should instead see the beauty of their differences, allowing the other race to do what it always has. done, to live with differences. These differences inevitably cause a certain degree of ignorance. Ignorance may serve to harm race relations in the short term, but it is an inevitable part of race relations.