“A Soldier’s Play”

Ep. 6 Outline

Pre Show: What's going on everyone, Welcome to another addition of Confessions of a Native Son, I'm your host Mike Steadman. I'm a Marine Corps Veteran, Entrepreneur, and Aspiring author, who enjoys thought provoking and engaging dialogue about race, culture, and business. 

• On this Episode I discuss "A Soldier's Play" by Charles Fuller, a Pulitzer prize winning play that explores the complicated feelings of anger and resentment that some African-Americans have towards one another, and the ways in which many blacks have absorbed racist attitudes. I discuss how the play is still relevant today, why it's important for us to have these discussions.  As always,  thanks for sharing your time with and I hope enjoy the show.  

Introduction:  What's up everybody, Welcome to another addition of Confessions of a Native Son. 

• Thank you for supporting us. Acknowledge Mike Loyd

• Business Update, Our Hedgehog Strategy

• Confess about being boogie

Sponsors: 

• Dope Coffee: A lifestyle brand that pairs urban Black Culture with innovative product offerings in the coffee industry. We are not a coffee brand for Black people. We are a coffee brand that seeks to elevate Black culture through a lifestyle of premium coffee and candid conversation.

• IRONBOUND Boxing: a fitness brand committed to sharing our love, passion, and appreciation for boxing within companies, organizations, and low-income communities. As a social enterprise, we proudly dedicate a significant percentage of our proceeds, to fund free boxing programs for inner-city youth and young adults.

Theme: A Soldier's Play, Charles Fuller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece

• Topic 1: The Show & Movie

  • Overview

    • Synopsis: A Soldier's Play is a drama by Charles Fuller. The play uses a murder mystery to explore the complicated feelings of anger and resentment that some African Americans have toward one another, and the ways in which many black Americans have absorbed white racist attitudes.

      • Sgt Waters

      • CJ Memphis

      • Private First Class Peterson

      • Captain Richard Davenport

  • The story takes place at United States Army's Fort Neal, Louisiana, in 1944 during the time when the military was racially segregated. In the opening scene, the audience witnesses the murder of black Sergeant Vernon Waters by an unseen shooter. Just before his death, Waters utters the enigmatic cry, "They still hate you!"

    1. Captain Richard Davenport, a rare black Army officer, has been sent to investigate the killing. Initially, the primary suspects are local Ku Klux Klansmen. Later, bigoted white soldiers fall under suspicion. Ultimately, Davenport discovers the killer was one of the black soldiers under Waters' command. Waters' men hated him because Waters himself treated Southern black men in utter disdain and contempt.

       As Davenport interviews witnesses and suspects, we see flashbacks showing what Sergeant Waters was like, and how he treated his men. The light-skinned Waters was highly intelligent and extremely ambitious, and loathed black men who conformed to old-fashioned racist stereotypes. Waters dreamed of sending his own children to an elite college where they would associate with white students, rather than with other blacks. In Waters' mind, Uncle Toms and "lazy, shiftless Negroes" reflected poorly on him, and made it harder for other African-Americans to succeed. For that reason, Waters persecuted black soldiers like Private C.J. Memphis, whose broad grin and jive talk made Waters' blood boil. Waters' cruelty and vindictiveness drove Memphis to suicide, which alienated the rest of Waters' men, and turned them hopelessly against him.

       Shortly before he was murdered, Waters came to realize how futile and foolish his lifelong attempts to behave like a white man had been. His dying words, "They still hate you," reflected his belated understanding that white hatred and disdain of black men like himself had nothing to do with stereotypical black behavior, and that whites would probably always hate him, no matter how hard he tried to emulate "white" ways.

  • How I felt

  • What I learned

• Topic 2: Effects of Racism

  • No one's write

  • Stop apologizing

  • We can't be ashamed of our past

• Topic 3: Tyler Perry

  • Criticism's

  • He knows his Audience

  • Tyler Perry Studios

Conclusion: Closing remarks. No one is right

CTA: Be sure subscribe and support the podcast by giving us 5 stars and leaving a review on itunes. Also, forward this show to anyone in your network who you feel identifies with the subject matter. 

Order some dope coffee at www.realdopecoffee.com, we've got to start supporting our own businesses. Also be sure to donate at www.Ironboundboxing.org,  every donation allows us to support free amateur boxing programs for youth and young adults in low-income communities. go to our website and donate, every donation counts. 

Message me on Linkedin or shoot me an email at Mike@weareironbound.com, Special shoutout to my Co-Producer Mike Loyd and the team from the Gifted Sounds Network. Rooting for everybody black. 

Until next time, peace, love, and have a great rest of your week. .