Convergences of Interest, Social Construction, and Racial Theories in 'Fences' by Wilson

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Question 5: How does the work show convergences of interest, the social construction of race, white privilege, or other aspects of critical race theory? How can an understanding of these concepts deepen our interpretation of the work? While using Fences play.
Racial politics largely shaped the emergence and progress of American society. The analysis of the play ‘Fence’ by August Wilson unmasks a clash between racial oppression and racial privilege. The notions of critical theory and convergence of interest postulations show how the concepts of race and white privilege are elusive .an tempts to minimize or eradicate racism may appear mirage due to our inability to understand the drivers behind unending racism, which includes efforts to maintain white dominance and privilege. Thus, this paper uses critical theory and convergence of interest argument to explore racial realities regarding racial oppressions, discriminations, and white privileges from the context of play Fences.
The play ‘Fences’ heralds on a Friday night which was payday for Bono and Troy. The two friends engage in talk while drinking (Wilson,4-5). As the two continue to converse, it becomes evident that Troy had confronted their boss, Mr. Rand — Roy had raised a concern that only whites are assigned to drive the cabbage trucks while the blacks are exclusively assigned roles of collecting and carrying cabbage (Wilson,6). 
August Wilson, the artist of the play ‘Fences’ stands tall in portraying the racial struggle for identity and emancipations. As acclaimed African-American playwright, August Wilson highlights the struggles of the African-American communities. As a victim of racial discrimination himself, Wilson narrates about racially motivated traumatic experiences he encountered in school while he was a child (Albulanee, 21). He was chased because of being the only African American, abused, threatened, and abused physically assaulted. The problems related to racial oppression against black Americans are depicted in the life of Wilson as a child, young man, and adult (Albulanee, 21). The ills of racism as a form of social oppression appeared to continue for decades and centuries. The unending racial suppression and adverse experience in Wilson’s life explain the mode of his writing. Thus, Wilson is amongst some finest African-American to achieve success on Broadway, where he was proactive in defining the African-American movement. He put the plight of African Americans in the global spotlight.
Wilson’s continued adverse encounters with racism thought out is life depicts how life was not that different for any other African. Even during the Great Depression, Black Americans were disproportionately exposed to unemployment. However, President Roosevelt initiated core programs that made him popular amongst black Americans by the evade to heed increasingly support from the civil rights and failed to keep the anti-lynching law. In addition to President Roosevelt's support on pogroms that uplifted the welfare of black communities, during the second world war, black Americans enjoyed increased opportunities in defiance. However, segregation and discrimination continued during the second world war.
Over time, there has been slight progress in terms of racial manifestations and aggressions against black Americans. However, there have been increasingly overt forms of violence against African Americans, which included lynching, the assassination of black American leaders, mob attacks and assaults on black homes, the bombing of black churches, and brutal murder of black community activities or civil rights groups (Tyson,368). The obvious racial instigated attacks on black Americans raise critical issues regarding the moral grounds of white society. What moral ground in humanity allows another to suffer from no reasonable justification? The color variations could not be the primary reasons why black Americans were subjected to animosity and racially motivated aggression.
In response to the white supremacist agenda, which was considered inhumane, illegal, and immoral, racial discrimination and oppression against African communities were classified as illegal. The delegitimization of racism and associated oppressions allowed black communities to intermingle freely, live, dine and shop (Tyson,368). Despite an increased lack of legitimacy towards racism, white supremacists such as Ku Klux Klan continued to engage in racism.
The play vividly captures oppression and white privilege. As the American cities grew, opportunities for the whites from all parts of Europe were there, and only their lack of talent, inadequate willingness, and lack of capacity for hard work could derail them. However, black Africans who were strong, eager, and searching were rejected and limited to washing clothes, shining shoes, and living in dilapidated houses (Wilson,4). Racial politics constitute a broad phenomenon that encapsulated racial oppression or liberation through the pathway of racial identity and affiliation. The portrayal of Africans in the Fence play represents the historical, social aggregations along racial lines that perpetuate oppression while rewarding the rest with white privilege.
Human beings have inherent weaknesses involving an increased tendency to conduct biased evaluations and make unconscious and covert conclusions. Our unconscious desires may often fail to recognize or seek to alter our destructive behavior because we have formed strong links between identities and unconscious desires (Tyson, 15). Our unconscious desires, surroundings, identities, and biases social constructs are likely to be exposed through literature. The overall overt and covert manifestations of racism reflect a bias that led to destructive behaviors marked by oppressions.
Generally, humans naturally evaluate everything, including people. Such evaluations, which are sometimes laced with biases, lead to racial stereotyping. Racial stereotyping is a product of social constructs comprising perception of beliefs and expectations about particular groups. It is created out of distorted reality to advance selfish agenda by advancing racial politics that seek to oppress, alienate and discriminate. By examining the work of Wilson as encapsulated in his play, Fences, the culture of oppressions against black Africans is well portrayed. Through the lenses of Critical theory, one can understand the mechanism and process that propagated racial oppression. Critical theor...