Dutchman

Dutchman is a one-act play written by LeRoi Jones (later known as Amiri Baraka), which first debuted Off-Broadway in 1964, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. The play focuses on Clay, a 20-year-old African-American man wearing a suit and tie, and Lula, a 30-year-old white woman, who meet on a subway train in New York City during the summer.

Other work by this author includes the poem, An Agony. As Now.

The play begins with Clay sitting on the subway, reading and looking idly out the window. He sees Lula staring at him through the subway window at a station, and the two smile at each other. Lula boards the subway car and sits down next to Clay. She tells him that she saw him checking her out through the window and boarded the train to look for him.

The two start talking and flirting: Lula offers Clay an apple, which he accepts.  

Lula becomes quiet and eventually starts making racial-based remarks to Clay. She oscillates between flirting and racially taunting him, until Clay can no longer tolerate her antics. He slaps her, sheds his buttoned-up exterior, and releases his pent-up rage in a long speech that describes the racial oppression he faces as a black man.