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Black Bottom
August Wilson introduces the importance of Christianity in African-American lives, especially in the characters of Toledo, Cutler, and Levee in the play "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." This play is not overtly about religion, but it is about the African-American experience and cultural identity. Religion plays a major role in the personal and collective identities of African-Americans. Christianity has an ambiguous and paradoxical position within African-American culture. As the religion of the white oppressor, it has ironically been embraced as a primary means of spiritual solace, social support, and existential salvation. However, Toledo, Cutler, and Levee occupy precarious positions in African-American society. Their relationship with Christianity reflects the conflicts embedded in African-American identity.
Christianity is indelibly part of the African-American experience, because of the ways Churches have become central to black community development and maintenance. As Toledo challenges Cutler and Levee about knowing the Lord's Prayer, Cutler responds that his dad was a deacon in the church. His statement reflects the fact that many African-Americans found empowerment through the church. Christianity also provides metaphors and meanings for personal life, as this...
The anecdote and the answer show that none of the three men know the Lord's Prayer or any specific details of the bible, because Christianity for them is more than memorizing scripture. It is less important to memorize scripture than it is to attend church for its social aspects. The social aspects of Church are eluded to at several other points in the play, as when Toledo talks about the woman he married who left him because "the church was more important than I was," (p. 71). Basically, Toledo was not identifying with the Christian model of morality and wanted to forge his own path. As he puts it, "it ain't all the time what your intentions and wishes are," (p. 71). His wife preferred the more straight-laced men at Church. Christianity has been a means by which to cement but also divide the African-American community.
One of the most important impacts of Christianity on African-American identity has been the way it usurped the indigenous African religions and turned those religions into something that African-Americans can to fear and dislike about themselves. The white oppression of blacks had led to a systematic denigration of African heritage. European philosophy and religion are deemed superior to African models. This is why Slow Drag so vehemently opposes being called African, in one of the most ironic lines of the play: "I ain't no African!" (p. 21).
Works Cited
DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. Bartleby, 1903.
Elkins, Marilyn Roberson. August Wilson: A Casebook. New York: Garland, 2000.
Wilson, August. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Samuel French, 1985.
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