I saw ‘Fences’ and loved it. However, two things in the movie didn’t feel right to me for a story set in the 1950s:
1 - The casual use of the word ‘nigger’ between African Americans. It is used fairly frequently in the movie, sometimes as a term of endearment, sometimes as a part of a scolding from father to son. I thought this was a modern day phenomenon; I can’t imagine 1950s African Americans using the word in this manner, if at all. Maybe I’m wrong?
2 - This one is less jarring, but it rang untrue to me: The use of the phrase “that’s what I’m talking about”. Emphasis on the ‘I’m’. Again, this feel like a current phrase; I don’t believe I’ve ever heard the phrase used in this manner before, say, the 1990s.
I can’t speak from an experience of being black in the 1950s, but the play was written in 1987. The 1950s were a more recent memory in 1987- a full generation more recent. If the dialog didn’t ring true to audiences at the time, I’d think it would have gotten in the way of all the acclaim the play received.
Of course, that only addresses your point #1 since your point #2 is about the actors’ choices in inflection rather than the author’s choice in the written dialog. But your point #2 seems to bother you less and, again, I can’t offer any insight from experience of living through the 50s. Maybe some very old Doper can come in and offer an opinion.
It was pretty common in the 60s for people of an ethnic group to refer to themselves by a pejorative – but only if they were the member of that group. I knew of Polish people who’s refer to themselves as “Polocks,” for instance.