Racial Tension in "Fires in the Mirror"

1011 Words5 Pages
The play Fires in the Mirror depicts the racial tensions between the Jewish community and the African American community during the Crown Heights crisis in 1991. Anna Devere Smith records the emotions of both communities by using monologues from her interviews of politicians, artists, religious leaders, and other residents of Crown Heights. Through these multiple perspectives, the audience is able to see just how wide the spectrum of opinions was during the crisis. The play successfully illustrates the clashing opinions of the two communities, the undoctored monologue in Fires in the Mirror allows the audience to create their own image of the Crown Heights crisis through the lens of the play. Through the monologue of individual characters we can see the chaos and anger that both sides felt. Some African Americans vocalized about how they perceive the Jewish community, as people who were being treated better by public services, uncaring about the lives of others, and liars. The same feeling of resentment was reciprocated by a part of the Jewish community. Although there were some people from both communities who were either indifferent or wished that the two different cultures would just get along, the relationship between the two communities could be characterized by distrust and bias. All these different views on the crisis were accurately shown by Smith’s characters. The Jewish mother who felt judged because of her religion, yet looked at it with a comedic eye, told us that being Jewish meant that she was judged at times by others, but that didn’t need to bring her down. Others have lost their identity during the time of crisis. The Black teenager describes the role of appearance, as each culture acts and dresses differently purely based on race. Another Jewish woman complains about the complexities of wearing a wig, how she feels that she is fictitious when she

More about Racial Tension in "Fires in the Mirror"

Open Document