With our American Studies class, we took a field trip to downtown Chicago to see the Pulitzer prize winning show Clybourne Park at the Steppenwolf Theatre. The theme of racial boundaries within Chicago neighborhoods political correctness fuels the conflict of the production.
In the first act, the characters are dealing with the first black family to move into a predominantly white neighborhood. This was a precedent to what we now call the "white flight". In contrast, the characters in the second act are concerned with the gentrification of the same neighborhood fifty years later.
Within the play, there is the recurring image of neapolitan ice cream. In the opening scene, the character of Rus is eating from a box of neapolitan ice cream instead of helping his wife get the house ready for them to move out. He savors every bite but is only eating from the vanilla strip.The concept of an ice cream with three flavors, all distinctly their own color and flavor, placed right next to each other but never mixing, is parallel to both the geographic and racial divisions of Chicago neighborhoods.
People who enjoy neapolitan ice cream either prefer to mix the flavors or refuse to mix them, eating one flavor at a time, just as Rus would only eat the vanilla flavor. Goodness knows what would happen should he accidentally mix in some chocolate. The pure white of his creamy vanilla strip would be tarnished. In the world of the play, this was manifested in the hostility members of Clybourne Park felt towards a different "flavor" of people moving into their neighborhood.
We like to think that times have changed and that, as individuals, we would never respond to a similar situation in such a close-minded way. But how can we know for sure? In our own homogenous culture of the North Shore, how much diversity do we actually encounter on a daily basis?
How is the ice cream a metaphor for separation in our own lives?
I really liked this post. You drew many metaphors that made a lot of sense and I completely understood. To answer one of your questions, In our own homogenous culture of the North Shore, how much diversity do we actually encounter on a daily basis", I believe that I don't encounter much diversity at all. It's hard for me to encounter such a dramatic change when I've grown up in a small town were there were less than 10 people who weren't the same race as me. Now at New Trier, there is much more diversity than what I previously was used to, however, I don't think it's enough. The people growing up on the North Shore need change and need to start stepping outside of this "fantasy world"
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