The Colored Museum

“MISS PAT. […] of course, no drums are allowed on board.”

This is a reference to the fact that drums were banned by white plantation owners out of fear the drums would facilitate rebellion. Miss Pat is complicit in the enforcement of the oppressive rule and mimics her own oppressor’s behavior.

“MISS PAT. […] let me assure you Celebrity has no intention of throwing you overboard and collecting the insurance. We value you!”

The subliminal message of this seemingly kind and respectful gesture of concern is Miss Pat’s clear establishment that, from this moment on, the passengers’ primary worth is as that of mere commodities.

“MISS PAT. […] with this little item here […] you’ll become millionaires!”

This is a satirical depiction of the roots of basketball in American culture. To Miss Pat, the basketball star exists as a positive outcome of the physical hardships experienced by generations of slaves. It also establishes the concept of the unreserved commodification of every aspect of the enslaved person’s existence.

“MISS PAT. Please check the overhead before exiting as any baggage you don’t claim, we trash.”

To Wolfe, cherishing the past, no matter how difficult it might be to accept, is as an important part of the collective African American identity. This theme is central to the entire play and recurs throughout.

“AUNT ETHEL. First ya add a pinch of style/and then a dash of flair/now ya stir in some preoccupation with the texture of your hair.”

Aunt Ethel begins to list off the litany of Black stereotypes that contribute to her recipe for Black identity. As the host of a cooking show, it is difficult to ascertain whose version of Black identity Aunt Ethel is performing. One might ask who wrote the recipe she recites.

“GUY. ‘We couldn’t resolve the contradictions of our existence.’

GIRL. ‘And we couldn’t resolve yesterday’s pain.’”

These characters deal with one of the most important questions posed by the play: How does one accept the past and move forward when this very progress feels like a contradiction of identity and rejection of the cultural past?

“JUNIE. And God or the Devil one spoke to me and said, ‘Junie, these colored boys ain’t gonna have no kind of happiness.’”

This quotation deals with another contradiction and creates questions. Is future pain necessary if it will, in turn, cause more past pain? Are African Americans caught in a vicious cycle of suffering? If you could break this cycle, should you? 

“JUNIE. ’Cause just like Jesus went around healin’ the sick, I’m supposed to go around healin’ all the hurtin’ all these colored boys wearing from the war.”

This quotation is an exploration of the idea that the only way to heal pain is through violence. Junie sees death or destruction as the only way to heal the pain.

“MISS ROJ. I ain’t just your regular oppressed American Negro. No-no-no! I am an extraterrestrial.”

Miss Roj is playing upon the idea that mainstream cultural biases seem to dehumanize a certain part of the population. Although Miss Roj presents being an extraterrestrial a matter of pride, this quotation highlights the fact that gay and transgender people existed very much at the fringes of 1980s New York society, almost as if they were from another planet. 

“MISS ROJ. And the casket’s made out of stone, steel and glass and the people are racing all over the pavement like maggots on a dead piece of meat.”

This is Miss Roj’s veiled and obfuscated way of telling the audience that the AIDS crisis is killing her people, but New Yorkers are either too ignorant or oblivious to notice.

“MISS ROJ. We don’t ask for acceptance. We don’t ask for approval. We know who we are and we move on it!”

Miss Roj lays her perspective out on the table plain and simple. Regardless of the audience’s personal judgments of the lifestyle and behavior of the members New York’s LGBTQ community, they deserve respect and dignity.

“LAWANDA. She done fried, dyed, de-chemicalized her shit to death.”

LaWanda ironically criticizes the beautification techniques the Woman once used to mimic white concepts of beauty. Although these techniques have caused the Woman to go bald, LaWanda’s criticism is strangely ironic as she condemns the very style that she has herself been created to mimic.

“LAWANDA. The last time attitude worked on anybody was 1968. Janine girl, you need to get over it and get on with it.” 

The theme of past baggage returns here and displays LaWanda’s loss of faith or displeasure with the progress achieved by the civil rights movement. To LaWanda, whatever was achieved no longer has relevance or is not effective within the context of the current feminist movement.

“SON. Out there, every day, Mama is the Man. The Man Mama […] And he’s wiping his feet on me. On me, Mama, every damn day of my life. Ain’t that enough for me to deal with?”

Here Wolfe satirizes the one-dimensional Black male characters previously seen in the theater. The Son is obsessed with only one thing: his conflict with the Man. As a result, he does not have contradictions, only pain. For this reason, the Son cannot be a model or accurate reflection of the male African American experience. His existence is too one dimensional.

“MEDEA. My speech, like my pain and suffering, have become classical and therefore universal.”

Medea uses mimicry of the classical theater techniques she learned at Juilliard. This technique makes the Black experience universal and therefore palatable to a white audience.

“KID. ‘Not Soul on Ice.’

MAN. ‘It’s been replaced on my bookshelf by The Color Purple.’”

The replacement of Soul on Ice by The Color Purple on the bookshelf reflects the Man’s changing relationship to race and culture. the Man now surrounds himself with portrayals of the African American identity and reflections on race relations that are more socially palatable.

“MAN. The climate is changing, Kid, and either you adjust or you end up extinct […] a sociological dinosaur.”

The Man tries to use reason to counter the Kid’s emotional pleas to keep the valuable objects from his past. The Man holds no faith in his culture’s ability to survive the danger he sees coming.

“LALA. First off, no one calls me Sadie. Sadie died the day Lala was born.”

Lala draws her line in the sand. To Lala, her identity is her own creation, and her past exists only within her boundaries. She carefully selects only certain elements from her past in creating her beloved self-image.

“LALA. I don’t know nuthin’ ‘bout birthin’ no babies!”

Lala tries to sever herself from not only her past, but also her identity as a mother. This attempt symbolizes Lala’s desire to create a new identity with no past pain except whatever is useful for the fictional personality she creates for her career. This quotation also underscores her desire to cut herself off from a connection to the African American community that exists as a result of her maternal status. This struggle echoes a theme seen throughout the play that explores the interchangeable and conflicting positions of collective identity and individual identity within the Black community.

“LALA. And I’m thinking if only I had a machete, I could cut away the kinks. Remove once and for all the roughness.”

Lala fantasizes about cutting through Sammy Davis Jr.’s hair. Her desire to remove the kinks highlight Lala’s subconscious attempts to cut down or remove her own Black identity.

“NORMAL. First I thought somebody musta put it there as some kind of joke. But then I noticed that all ‘round this egg were thin lines of blood that I could trace to back between my legs.”

Normal Jean simply states what she sees. In doing so, she creates an image that suggests a strong bloodline connection between the new, emerging identity that has been created and its maternal source of life.

“NORMAL. Can you hear it? Instead of one heart, there’s two. […] Boom-boom-boom. Talkin to each other like old friends.”

Normal Jean reconnects to the drumbeat of her own spiritual maternal past. The heartbeat of her offspring connects through time and space to the ancient, eternal rhythm of their culture.

“TOPSY. And here, all this time I been thinking we gave up our drums. But naw, we still got ’em. I know I got mine. They’re here, in my speech, in my walk, my hair.”

Topsy recognizes a resilience that has lasted through 300 years of oppression. Although the drums were banned, they live on culturally in new and innovative ways.