Troy Maxson Racist?

     In August Wilson’s story, Fences, Troy Maxson would be considered the main character. The play starts out with Troy complaining about his job as a lifter for a garbage truck company. He grumbles that the white men are the ones that get to drive the trucks and do not have to do the heavy lifting like he has to do himself. The blame for this is put on his boss. He rebels against this racial practice by protesting the restrictions the black employers have in the company. At a first look, this makes Troy come off as racist. He is irritable about his boss making his job have racial differences and in a way segregated. Later, he goes on talking about how his son Cory will not be able to be recruited into a football team. His reasoning is that the ‘white man’ will not let Cory get anywhere with football. He puts the blame on the ‘white man.’ Again, this makes Troy look a bit racist. Some may take this as racism, but I do not believe Troy truly is racist. Yes, he does put blame on white men for multiple reasons, but he does not show any kind of hatred towards them, just frustration. Troy is mostly just upset with the ways the white men have upon black people. He feels they control them and do not give the black community any chances. The time setting that they are placed in definitely conflicts with the segregation issue. In this time period, black people did not have the same equalities as the white people did. This is why Troy is having a hard time with his boss and with white men in general. It does not make Troy racist for being aggravated with this situation but it can make it appear that way.