The White Card: A Play [Paperback]

A play about the imagined fault line between black and white lives by Claudia Rankine, the author ofCitizen

The White Cardstages a conversation that is both informed and derailed by the black/white American drama. The scenes in this one-act play, for all the characters disagreements, stalemates, and seeming impasses, explore what happens if one is willing to stay in the room when it is painful to bear the pressure to listen and the obligation to respond.
from the introduction by Claudia Rankine

Claudia Rankines first published play,The White Card, poses the essential question: Can American society progress if whiteness remains invisible?

Composed of two scenes, the play opens with a dinner party thrown by Virginia and Charles, an influential Manhattan couple, for the up-and-coming artist Charlotte. Their conversation about art and representations of race spirals toward the devastation of Virginia and Charless intentions. One year later, the second scene brings Charlotte and Charles into the artists studio, and their confrontation raises both the stakes and the questions of whatand whois actually on display.

RankinesThe White Cardis a moving and revelatory distillation of racial divisions as experienced in the white spaces of the living room, the art gallery, the theater, and the imagination itself.

The ideas discussed inThe White Cardare always compelling. . . . The lines of an urgent debate are clearly and thoroughly drawn.The Nation

The footsteps of giants are often soft, we hardly hear them coming. But determined to leave a mark on the landscape, Claudia Rankine is a giantgen