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Kenneth Stoller
A black family living in Chicago who purchases Russ and Bev’s home. The members of this family are the protagonists in A Raisin in the Sun, but they do not appear onstage in Clybourne Park. As a result, the audience knows very little about them, though they are referred to frequently during the first act, usually as “the buyers.” Lena is the great niece of the Younger family’s matriarch, also named Lena.
The Younger Family Quotes in Clybourne Park
The Clybourne Park quotes below are all either spoken by The Younger Family or refer to The Younger Family. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Act 1 Quotes
Now, Russ, you know as well as I do that this is a progressive community.
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Karl has recently discovered that the family moving into Russ and Bev’s home is black. He is upset by this, and has come to Russ and Bev to try to convince them to halt the sale. Karl doesn’t want to come across as racist, and truly believes the neighborhood is “a progressive community,” an ironic statement seeing as it comes in the middle of Karl’s argument that Clybourne Park should remain a racially segregated community. Karl does not see himself as a villain. Instead he sees himself as a kind of protector of the neighborhood. He claims his resistance to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a
Karl: It’s a colored family.
Jim: Sorry, don’t we say Negro, now?
Karl: I say Negro —
Jim: Well, it’s only common courtesy, and I’m —
Karl: — I say them interchangeably —
Jim: — not trying to tell you how to conduct your business.
Karl: — and of course I said Negro to them — No I think we both know what you’re doing.
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After Karl has come to Russ and Bev’s house to announce that he has discovered the family about to move into their home is black, Jim immediately pushes back. However, Jim’s stance on integrating the neighborhood is not initially clear. He seems to be offended by Karl’s treatment of the black family, but also shocked that Ted Driscoll would sell a Clybourne Park home to a black family. By picking on the term “colored” versus “Negro,” Jim derails Karl’s argument, and makes him out to be racially insensitive. Karl’s insistence that he used the correct term to the Younger family’s Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis.
Karl: Bev, they are one hundred percent. And if I don’t know how much time any of you have spent in Hamilton Park, but Betsy was waiting in the car and I can tell you, there are some unsavory characters.
Russ: Karl?
Karl: But in the case of Gelman’s: I think there was some mistrust at first, having been Kopeckne’s Market for such a long time, but in the end of all Murray Gelman found a way to fit in.
Bev: And they hired the Wheeler boy.
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Karl argues that his primary opposition to the Younger family moving into Clybourne Park is not racial. Instead, he claims to believe that they will not fit into the neighborhood. He points to Gelman’s grocery store as an example of an outsider (Gelman) who managed to fit in. Gelman is presumably Jewish, as opposed to Kopeckne who was not. Gelman managed to “fit in,” partially by hiring Mr. Wheeler, of whom the residents of the neighborhood are fond. By contrast, the Younger family’s race makes them too different, in Karl’s mind, to fully belong. At its core, therefore, Karl’s opposition Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollit
And fitting into a community is really what it all comes down to…Now, some would say change is inevitable. And I can support that, if it’s change for the better. But I’ll tell you what I can’t support, and that’s disregarding the needs of the people who live in a community.
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Karl claims that his opposition to the Younger family moving into Clybourne Park is that he worries they will not fit in. He also worries that their presence will change the neighborhood for the worse. He reveals later in the act that he fears the arrival of a single black family will trigger white flight, and eventually the neighborhood will be entirely composed of black families and white families like his, who are too poor to leave for the suburbs. Karl does not want this to happen, and so sees it as his duty to act as a kind of Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accus
Karl: And what happened to love thy neighbor? If we’re being so principled.
Bev: They would become our neighbors.
Karl: And what about the neighbors you already have Bev?
Bev: I care about them, too!
Karl: Well, I’m afraid you can’t have it both ways.
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As Karl, Jim, and Bev debate what to do about the Younger family (who recently purchased the Stoller home), Bev tries to be a peacemaker. While Karl is vehemently opposed to the Youngers moving in, and Jim supports segregation but less vocally, Bev tries to argue for the neighborhood’s integration. Karl sees allowing the Younger family to move in as an act of hatred toward the community on Bev and Russ’s part. A good neighbor, he believes, would do everything in their power to keep the neighborhood white. Bev argues that loving her neighbors means loving all her neighbors, even Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit.
Jim: —You do find differences in modes of worship. If you take First Presbyterian. Now, that’s a church down in Hamilton Park and I’ve taken fellowship there and I can tell you, the differences are notable.
Bev: Jim?
Jim: Not a value judgment. Apples and oranges. Just as how we have our organ here at Saint Thomas, for accompaniment, whereas at First Presbyterian, they prefer a piano and, occasionally…well, tambourines.
Bev: What’s wrong with tambourines?
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Karl and Jim attempt to come up with reasons why black and white people couldn’t live together peacefully. Many of their examples seem petty—for instance, citing differences in dinner preferences, or here, differences in the instruments they use in church. Jim and Karl do their best, at first, to use coded language to convey the difference between black and white people. They do not want to outright say that they do not like black people and do not want them in their neighborhood. Instead they try to come up with cultural reasons that a black family would be unhappy if Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corru
Bev: And for all we know this family could be perfectly lovely.
Karl: Well, that’s hardly the point, is it?
Bev: Maybe it’s a point to consider.
Karl: Bev, I’m not here to solve society’s problems. I’m simply telling you what will happen, and it will happen as follows: First one family will leave, then another, and another, and each time they do, the values of these properties will decline, and once that process begins, once you break that egg, Bev, all the kings horses, etcetera—
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As she discusses the possibility of the Younger Family moving into her vacated home, Bev feels obligated to treat all people kindly and to give everyone a chance to prove themselves. Karl, meanwhile, is set against any black family moving in. He is set in his convictions, and refuses to entertain the idea that any non-white family could be “perfectly lovely.” Karl is correct in his prediction about white people leaving the neighborhood, but that doesn’t make his opposition to the Younger family any less racist. He doesn’t want them to move in because he worries more black families will Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium
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