Radio Golf

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racism.

“HARMOND. You don’t understand. Politics is about symbolism. Black people don’t vote but they have symbolic weight.

MAME. That’s what Thomas Brown said when he ran for mayor. You see what he’s doing now. Fixing parking tickets.”

This exchange captures one of the central tensions in Radio Golf: The Tension Between Personal Ambition and Communal Solidarity. Harmond’s comment reveals his approach to politics at this point in the play, suggesting that the symbolic representation of Black people is sufficient, even when their needs and voices remain overlooked. This moment exposes a flaw in Harmond’s initial political ambitions: He has lost touch with the Black community.

“MAME. I’m voting it should stay Model Cities Health Center.

HARMOND. Sarah Degree was the first black registered nurse in the city. Naming it after her fits perfectly.

MAME. Model Cities Health Center has been around for twenty-two years. The organization has some history in the neighborhood. Nobody knows who Sarah Degree was.

HARMOND. That’s why the Health Center needs to be named after her. So we remember.”

Harmond’s desire to name the health center after Sarah Degree reflects his community-oriented ideals. Harmond wants to recognize the achievements of Black people, even if those individuals are not known in their community. Mame, on the other hand, would like to keep the existing name because of the center’s history and its role within the community.

“STERLING. People think I’m dumb ‘cause I robbed that bank. I just wanted to know what it was like to have some money. Seem like everybody else had some. I said let me get me some. So I robbed that bank. I had some money. It didn’t make me smarter. It didn’t make me better than anybody else. You can’t do nothing with money but spend it. After that you back where you started from. Then what you gonna do? I found out I was looking for something that you couldn’t spend. That seem like the better of the two. To me. Everybody got their own way of looking at it but if you ask me…I‘d take something you couldn’t spend over money any day.”

Sterling reflects on his reasons for robbing a bank: Wealth is alluring to someone who has never experienced it, but he soon realized it offered no lasting value. This reflection exposes the emptiness of material wealth and reveals Sterling’s character as the antithesis of Roosevelt’s. While Roosevelt cares only for money and status, Sterling recognizes that the only things of lasting value are those that can’t be spent: love, community, and justice.