Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom: Difference between revisions

Power and exploitation plays a big part in this play. The musicians are forced to deal with complicated power dynamics. They are subjected to racist manipulation by greedy white studio executives as Black artists in the exploitative entertainment industry of the 1920s. Sturdyvant, for example, treats Ma Rainey badly, speaking of her as if she were an untrustworthy child who needed to be "kept in order." Despite his suspicions and racism, he continues to profit from her music. Worse, he offers her pitiful remuneration, paying her one-time recording fees while retaining all of the royalties for himself, a practice that was widespread at the time and prevented some of the era's most famous Black performers from receiving the money they deserved.