Race (8 page)

JACK
: What does he want?

HENRY
: I believe he wants reparation.

JACK
: How much?

HENRY
: I don't think it's money.

JACK
: You
don't
think it's money?

CHARLES
: You're saying my remark was racist.

HENRY
: You're kidding.

CHARLES
: No.

HENRY
: The remark on the postcard?

CHARLES
: Yes.

HENRY
: How can you say that to a black man.

CHARLES
: We were friends.

HENRY
: Well, then. Let me ask you. Why did he save the letter?

JACK
: Why did he save it?

CHARLES
: People, people, they “save things.”

HENRY
: Yes?

CHARLES
: They, they keep them in the
attic
. . .

HENRY
: As we've
said
, but why did he
remember
it, for all these years?

CHARLES
: We
joked
about it. Don't you understand? . . .

HENRY
: Yes. But. All these years? . . .

JACK
: Hold on, you joked?

CHARLES
: We joked about . . .

JACK
: Go on.

CHARLES
: “Black women . . .”

HENRY
(To self)
: . . .
ah
ha . . .

JACK
: What about them?

CHARLES
: How . . .

HENRY
(To self)
: . . .
there
it is . . .

JACK
: “How?”

CHARLES
: How they . . .
(Pause) You
know . . . How they “are more” . . .

JACK
: How they are more?

CHARLES
: . . . yes . . .

HENRY
:
What?

JACK
: “Sexually
active
”?

CHARLES
: . . . yes.

HENRY
: And are they?

CHARLES
:
I
don't know. I . . .

HENRY
: But you
joked
about it. That they were more . . . ?

CHARLES
: Yes . . .

HENRY
: “Promiscuous”?

CHARLES
: To my “schoolboy
mind
,” do you understand? I'm not saying it was “right,” it
wasn't
right, it was what a young . . .

HENRY
: And did your friend share your thoughts?

CHARLES
: We
joked
about it.

HENRY
: And you talked in a “Negro” voice, and “said” things.

CHARLES
: We
both
did.

HENRY
: Mister, you've got yourself an enemy.

CHARLES
: An “enemy.”

HENRY
: And how do you think your friend felt? When he thought about that? “Joking” with you. What do you think he felt. Over the years. You're a sensitive man. What did he feel? For “playing along with you”?

CHARLES
: Perhaps he felt shame.
(He rises)
Are you done with me?

JACK
: Mr. Strickland. With any figure of your prominence. One accusation
will
call forth another. People crave attention, they crave money, “they” are envious and sinful, just like you and me. A case, will grow, and develop, and “declare” itself. As it develops. Just like any illness. Mr. Strickland. All we're talking about is a postcard. Believe it or not, there is nothing here, which will debar us. From winning your case.

CHARLES
: . . . I . . . I . . .

JACK
: The
fact
remains: that you are
innocent
. And that we can and
will
establish your innocence. In a court of law. Your
innocence
.
Of that of which you were accused
.
Irrespective of
: your personal beliefs
or
statements.
Or
prejudices . . .

CHARLES
: I believe . . .

JACK
: And irrespective
of
whatever
other
true, false, or
arguable
peccadillos or . . .

CHARLES
: I believe . . .

JACK
: Or sins you may
think
yourself guilty of.

CHARLES
: I
believe
. . . that I should talk to the
press
.

JACK
: You can't talk to the press.

HENRY
: Why would you want to do that?

CHARLES
: To explain . . .

JACK
: It's our job Mr. Strickland to get you
acquitted
, not to explain. Not to
apologize
. To win the case. Look, everyone wants to be cleansed, it is
attractive
to confess . . . I
understand
, but . . .

CHARLES
: . . . I
wronged
that man. I called him my friend. And I did him a great wrong. And I never knew it.

JACK
: Whatever other “slurs,” or acts you may feel yourself accused of.
(Pause)
You've been charged with rape. The charge is unsustainable, and we're going to see that you're exonerated.
(Pause)
You
cannot
confess. You cannot talk to the press. Whatever you feel,
listen
to me. You must
control
your desire to confess.
(Pause; referring to the postcard)
This,
this
man can be bought off.

HENRY
: That may not be so, Jack . . .

JACK
(Waving it off)
: Be that as it
may
. . . it has nothing whatever to do with the case at hand.

CHARLES
: My friend hated me. I humiliated him. So badly. That he remembered. All these years.

HENRY
: Do you know. Mister Strickland.

CHARLES
: What?

HENRY
: We all have to put up with a lot. From each other.

CHARLES
(He starts off)
: That's very generous.

HENRY
: I'll walk you out.

JACK
(To Susan)
: He's been accused of rape. Of which he's innocent.
(Pause)
He hasn't been accused of being racist.
(Pause)
Look, you work in this racket, you are going to meet a lot of people.
At Their Most Human
which is to say “at their worst.” There are things
all
of us, would rather . . .
(Susan hands him a sheet of paper)
What is this?

SUSAN
: A statement. From the hotel cleaning lady. She now remembers. Finding sequins underneath the bed.

JACK
: Hold the fuck
on
. Tell me again.

SUSAN
: They have a statement from the maid who now remembers finding red sequins underneath the bed.

JACK
: What prompted her to think again?

SUSAN
: I beg your pardon?

JACK
: Why did the cleaning lady think again? She all of a sudden “got the
idea
” . . . ?

SUSAN
: I . . .

JACK
: . . . to remember something she “forgot”? Why would she
do
that?

SUSAN
: How would
I
know?

JACK
: How did we get the statement?

HENRY
: . . . what?

JACK
(To Susan)
: Get Kelley on the phone.

SUSAN
: “Half-literate . . .”

JACK
(Referring to sheet of paper)
: Rosa fucking Gonzales.
(To phone)
I have to call you back.

SUSAN
: “Half-literate.” Hotel Maid.

JACK
: Can we call things: by their name? Her social security number is false, her employment application is written in a misspelled scrawl, she is
illegal
. God
bless
her, that's what she is.
(Pause)
When, in a million
years
, is this woman going
of her own free will
back to the police. In a case, she probably can't even
understand
. To call their attention to a fact that she cannot
possibly
feel is important.
(Pause)
You tell me that. Our client, did our client talk to someone 'cause if not Somebody told the other side, and there's our fucking case, and an innocent man's going to jail.
(Pause)
I do not understand.
(Pause)
Alright . . .

SUSAN
: We . . .

HENRY
(To Susan)
: Susan, I left my briefcase in the car, would . . .

JACK
: No.
(To Susan)
She should be here . . . We . . .

HENRY
: I need the fucking briefcase.

SUSAN
: I'll get it.

HENRY
: Thank you.

JACK
: I. Do. Not. Understand. How in the fuckin'
world
. Does this
immigrant
. Suddenly; “get the idea” to remember the sequins. And go to the cops? The fucking cops are “la migra.”
(Pause)
The prosecution? Thought of it? They? “Suggested” her? They “planted the idea.” I'll take her apart. On the Stand? I'll fucking
murder
her. Okay. We need:

HENRY
: . . . the prosecution . . .

JACK
: We need her
deposition
. . . Her . . .

HENRY
: The prosecution didn't “suggest” her.

JACK
: Then where does she suddenly “get the idea”?

HENRY
: Did you mind that I sent Susan for the briefcase?

JACK
: I don't understand why you need it.

HENRY
: I don't need it.

JACK
: Then why did you send her away?

HENRY
: Pretty girl.

JACK
: Why'd you send her away?

HENRY
: Well, I wanted to talk to you alone.

JACK
: Why?

HENRY
: Because she sold us out.

JACK
: The
girl
sold us out.

HENRY
: That is correct.

JACK
: How do you know that?
(Pause)
“Because she's black?”

HENRY
: No. Because
I'm
black. And I am not affected, by her bullshit.

JACK
: And I am?

HENRY
: What the girl has been doing in this office, do you see, Jack, is the postmodern equivalent of a “nigger” act. For the right response, when you ask her to put on the dress, is not, “Fuck you,
whitey
,” but, “I'd rather not, and thank you for the job.” With a white man you would see that, white woman you
might
see it, black woman, you're blind as a bat.

JACK
: Is that so?

HENRY
: You bet your life it is.

JACK
: And why is that?

HENRY
: 'Cause you're guilty?

JACK
: What am I guilty about? “Slavery”?

HENRY
: No, you weren't here for slavery.

JACK
: Then why am I guilty?

HENRY
: All people are guilty. Didn't you say that? And she exploited it. And, plus why the fuck
shouldn't
she put on the dress? Is she a member of this firm? I
told
you, Day
One
, not to hire this girl. Day
one
.

JACK
: . . . yes you did . . .

HENRY
: And you overrode my suggestion.

JACK
: You went along with it.

HENRY
: I was wrong.

JACK
: What
should
you have done?

HENRY
: I
should
have told you, “You're a fool.”

JACK
: I was
concerned
. . .

HENRY
: . . . I'm listening.

JACK
: That with her
record
. . .

HENRY
: . . . alright.

JACK
: With her
credentials
. . .

HENRY
: You were concerned she'd sue us. If we turned her down.

JACK
: Well, you know what, yes, I
was
.

HENRY
: And
now
look what she's done. The girl, do you see, black or white, doesn't make a difference, she's
trouble
. . .