A review by whothehelliskaitlin
Dutchman and the Slave: Two Plays by LeRoi Jones

1.0

I know that Baraka was a very intelligent man and one who greatly influenced the Black Arts movement, however his brilliance and fight against racism are clouded by his own prejudices. I have read four of his works, including these two plays, and they are all littered with rampant anti-semitism, misogyny, and homophobia. It almost distracts the reader completely from the point of the work. Additionally, his works are often very convoluted and busy and while I know the purpose of the style it does not always work in his plays and almost comes off as pretentious where you have to dig deep to see what he is even saying. The plays do have important things to say about anti-blackness and the black experience but these factors of his work I could not ignore, it made them unenjoyable for me.