There are no Angels in America

“It's – look, race, yes, but ultimately race here is a political question, right? Racists just try to use race here as a tool in a political struggle…there are no angels in America, no spiritual past, no racial past, there's only the political, and the decoys and the ploys to maneuver around the inescapable battle of politics, the shifting downwards and outwards of political power to the people...” – Angels in America, Act 3, Scene 2, Line 12.

Angels in America is a six act play which deals with themes of sexuality, religion, and race during the Regan era in the United States.  In this scene, a white man is explaining to a black man the reasons why he believes racism in America exists not due to a hatred of a specific race, but rather it exists as a political measure meant to control the public.  This sentiment not only ignores the reasons behind race, but dismisses the work of civil rights movements and activist groups throughout the United States. It is racist ideals that allow political leaders to introduce racism into the government arena, not vice versa. Racist standards allow the government to operate in the way that it does.  In the context in which the play is written, the white man sees the Regan administration strategically ignoring the rising AID epidemic and as his friends and lover begin to pass away from the disease, he notices the politics involved in keeping a population excluded and oppressed.  He then translates this belief to fit into the confines of race, ignoring the past two hundred plus years of racial oppression. The issue with attempting to do such a comparison lies in the fact that the black American experience rests not solely in the political sphere, but on a very real personal sphere as well.