August Wilson's Legacy

August Wilson’s legacy is all around. His plays are all about the black struggle in 20^th-century America. He once said “I think my plays offer (white Americans) a different way to look at black Americans,” Fourteen days after Wilson’s death, the Virginia Theatre in New York City’s Broadway Theater District was renamed the August Wilson Theatre. It was the first Broadway theatre to bear the name of an African-American. Streets have been named after him, scholarships have been provided, and buildings have been named after him. August Wilson changed the societal views of African-Americans, allowing their voices to be heard. Growing up wasn’t easy for him. “As the only African American student in school, he was constantly threatened and harassed, so he left just before the end of his freshman year” (Biographical Sketch of August Wilson). “In 1960, at age 15, Wilson dropped out of Gladstone after a teacher accused him of plagiarizing his 20-page paper on Napoleon” (Biographical Sketch of August Wilson). He was passionate toward the African-American experience in the 20^th century. The legacy of August Wilson lives on through the places, streets, and scholarships named after him, as well as his famous plays. Growing up he didn’t have the most promising life but he continued to succeed in doing what he loved- writing.

August Wilson’s legacy reveals a larger message about how race, power, and language intersect in the United States because he was not treated very fair growing up. He was accused of plagiarizing, harassed, and threatened because he was the only African-American attending the school. Race, power, and language intersect in the United States. For example: “Ralph Nader characterized candidate Barack Obama as ‘half African American’ and accused Obama of wanting to ‘talk white’ (Language, Power, and the Performance of Race and Class). This is saying that Ralph Nader thinks that since Obama is “half African-American” that he is supposed to act and speak as if he is one or the other. “Race is more fundamentally about power” (Language, Power, and the Performance of Race and Class). It is misleading to say that race is about physical appearance. It is about the power you hold. People often classify the way you speak with how much education you have, how old you are, and where you grew up. For instance, “he don’t got none” and “he doesn’t have any” (Language, Power, and the Performance of Race and Class). The two utterances have similar meanings but we tend to associate the first form with speakers who have less education and social status than speakers who use the second form. I found it interesting that there are stereo-typical language-based judgments of social class status and the overlapping of race and ethnicity. “‘African-American’ or ‘Latino’ are generally associated with lower socioeconomic status” (Language, Power, and the Performance of Race and Class). In the article, “Language, Power, and the Performance of Race and Class” it talks a lot about how the way you speak, how you define yourself, and how society views you. It ties together with August Wilson because it demonstrates how language and power connect with race and language. The way you speak depends on a few factors: where you live, how you grew up, your education, gender, your age, and social status.