Racism happens in many parts of the world. Racism can be said as the discrimination of people because of their skin colour. The white is the one who discriminates the black one. They usually don’t want to have anything to do with the blacks.
In the poem Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka, the idea of racism is portrayed by the poet clearly. Soyinka managed to gives out the theme of racism by using words such as ‘DARK’, ‘VERY DARK’ ‘LIGHT’ and ‘VERY LIGHT’. In the poem, the discrimination by the landlady started when the man confessed that he is an African. The landlady was silenced had had ask him a sensitive question which is “HOW DARK?”, “ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?” The use of capital letters shows that Soyinka is emphasizing about the racism that the landlady had on the African man. The landlady should not treat the African man that way because of his skin colour. It is clearly seen that the landlady acted differently after the man confessed that he is an African.
The landlady acted rudely towards the African man by wanting him to tell more about himself. However the African answers all the questions without being rude. The African man had also said so many things about himself to prove that he is not that black. The African man does say that he is brunette but he had also said about his palm and soles of his feet. He wanted to actually tell the landlady that he is not that dark as she thought. The landlady thought that the African man was very dark and keep repeating about the issue of skin colour rather than asks something that got to do with the premises.
The landlady is being very rude towards the man. The man had been very nice to the landlady even though he had been treated badly just because of his skin colour. I do think that the man had been too nice to the landlady. He should actually be a little harsh towards the landlady as she had been using harsh words to the man. The man can actually being rude and used improper words to fight...