Prejudice_Telephone Conversation

Telephone Conversation
by Wole Soyinka


The price seemed reasonable, location
Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
Off premises. Nothing remained
But self-confession. "Madam," I warned,
"I hate a wasted journey—I am African."
Silence. Silenced transmission of
Pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated, long gold rolled
Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was foully.
"HOW DARK?" . . . I had not misheard . . . "ARE YOU LIGHT
OR VERY DARK?" Button B, Button A.* Stench
Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.
Red booth. Red pillar box. Red double-tiered
Omnibus squelching tar. It was real! Shamed
By ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed dumbfounded to beg simplification.
Considerate she was, varying the emphasis--
"ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?" Revelation came.
"You mean--like plain or milk chocolate?"
Her assent was clinical, crushing in its light
Impersonality. Rapidly, wave-length adjusted,
I chose. "West African sepia"--and as afterthought,
"Down in my passport." Silence for spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness clanged her accent
Hard on the mouthpiece. "WHAT'S THAT?" conceding
"DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS." "Like brunette."
"THAT'S DARK, ISN'T IT?" "Not altogether.
Facially, I am brunette, but, madam, you should see
The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet
Are a peroxide blond. Friction, caused--
Foolishly, madam--by sitting down, has turned
My bottom raven black--One moment, madam!"--sensing
Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
About my ears--"Madam," I pleaded, "wouldn't you rather
See for yourself?"

This poem is basically a conversation of two main characters: the narrator, a black, who is trying to rent a flat and the landlady, who is trying to rent her flat. This poem was able to bring out a strong feeling of racism and prejudice against the black within it as they made us of the two skin colour to show the displease and unhappiness between the two colours.

In this poem, we can see that the landlady who is renting her place was very prejudiced against blacks and had a strong sense of racism. This is evident from the point where she started speaking into the phone saying "How Dark?". This meant that she was very concerned about the skin colour of the narrator, thus showing the fact that she was unwilling to rent her room away to someone who is indifferent in colour with her as she was also hesitating alot in the conversation, which can be seen from the long silences. Also, the fact that she said "What's that" and "Don't know what that is" could also mean that she was not very smart and did not understand the meaning behind why blacks should be discriminated and only did it because everyone else was doing so too.