Race

• 1940’s America was not free of racial prejudice and discrimination.
• A Streetcar Named Desire successfully addresses prejudice based on class rather than race, particularly in a post-Harlem Renaissance era where segregation was still prevalent but being contested.
• Williams’ New Orleans becomes a pocket that is different from the rest in its warmth and welcoming attitude towards the New American Dream of equality - a Dream open to all classes and races.
• Blanche is a stranger in New Orleans.
• She arrives there bringing with her her traditional notions of superiority.
• The main characters in the play are all white, but “Negro woman”, “Mexican women”, language, slang, dialects, along with jazz music attempt to create the feeling of diversity and Otherness.
• The play does not address the glaring racism against African-Americans at that time.
• Williams looks at racism faced by recent European immigrants compared to longer established ones through the Kowalski - DuBois conflict.
• Class is important to note when discussing the play as a commentary on racism, as at the time, racism in America pertaining to skin color was predominant.
• Blanche refers to Stanley as a “polack” and “swine”.
• Stanley predominantly faces prejudice as a result of his class position, rather than his ethnic Otherness or ambiguity.
• The appellations, along with statements like “You healthy Polack, without a nerve in your body” reveal Blanche’s racism or xenophobia.
• The relationship between Blanche and Stanley illustrates the prejudice many first or second-generation European faced.
• In late 19th-century and early 20th-century America, ‘new immigrants’ from Italy, Ireland, Poland, Greece, Hungary and the Slavic countries occupied a racial middle ground and were considered ‘not-quite-white’.