American Moor

Content Warning: The source text and this study guide discuss systemic racism and anti-Black prejudice. The guide quotes and obscures the playwright’s use of racial slurs.

The Actor believes that he cannot fully express his personal identity and emotions outside of the realm of theater because many people in the United States are threatened by Black men. Early in his life, the Actor learned that “people in our American culture, who are not Black like me, they do not respond in the same manner to Black men, like me, raising their voices, even slightly, as they do with one another” (10). He observes that men like him “scare” non-Black people; they assume violence from him, and raising his voice is taken to be a threat. So, in order to be non-threatening, the Actor represses parts of his personal identity and his emotions, and he “keep[s] it all in [his] head. Until [he gets] to be Romeo, or Hamlet, or Titania” (10).

In this way, the Actor’s artistic medium becomes an outlet for his identity and his emotions. Even when he is frustrated about the racism he observes and experiences, and he thinks about “all of the things that should be said…that should be heard” (10), he says nothing in his real life; instead, he waits until he is on stage to vent his frustration.