Essay On Argument Between Negros Art And Racial Mountain

Hughes was a great writer with much diversity in his types of writings. His poetry was a way for us to see a picture of urban life during the Harlem Renaissance, the habits, attitudes, and feelings of his oppressed people. These poems did more than reveal the pain of poverty, it also illustrated racial pride and dignity. “His main concern was the uplift of his people, whose strengths, resiliency, courage, and humor he wanted to record as part of the general American experience” (Wikipedia, Langston Hughes). Hughes was not ashamed of his heritage and his main theme, “black is beautiful,” was expressed and shared to the world through his poetry. During the literary movement, music was central to the cultural movement of the Harlem Renaissance, which was a main feature of Hughes’s poetry. He had an important technical influence by his emphasis on folk, jazz, and blues rhythms as the basis of his poetry of racial pride. Hughes used this unique style of writing because it was important to him to have the readers feel and experience what they were reading, “to recognize the covert rhetoric in lyric means to appreciate the overlap between emotive and discursive poetry. Rooted in song, the lyric reestablishes the ritual of human communion” (Miller 52).

Hughes story, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”, veers away from the conventions of Du Bois’s essay as rather than focusing on the value of black art as a key in social movements, it involves black artists who would rather neglect their blackness and rather took on the culture of whites. The speaker claims he enjoys being white more than being an African American, and Hughes describes this as “the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America-this urge within the race towards whiteness…”. Much like Du Bois, Hughes writes about the “beauty” of Negro art, and aims to uplift the appeal of negro language and culture as he examines African American artists who stayed true to their roots and culture whose works are amongst those that are still heavily praised even decades later.

When we think of the African American culture, the first thing most people revert to is slavery. However, even after slavery ended, African Americans were not given the rights they were promised. They were treated wrongly and their true culture and identities were still widely misunderstood. During the period of Harlem Renaissance, the African American culture and the true identities of the people were revealed along with allowing the world to see them as more than just slaves and servants, but as actual people. Different poets, writers, musicians, and painters displayed the culture in their creative ways one of who is known as Langston Hughes. His works are credited and discussed worldwide till this day and will continue to do so in the future. During the Harlem Renaissance Langston

Langston Hughes is probably the most influential and remembered poet of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes writes about how the African-American people have been all over the world. In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” he talks about them bathing in the Euphrates, building huts by the Congo, and singing of the Mississippi. I think that this poem is showing how these people are everywhere. In America we act as if they are lesser, but he is saying to the white people, look at all my race has accomplished. For example, “We” built the pyramids, and we have been around as long as these rivers. This poem is meant to be positive. It

Langston Hughes declares “Negroes - Sweet and Docile, Meek, Humble, and Kind: Beware the day - They change their minds”. Originally, society has been involved in racial stereotypical events. During Hughes’s era individuals with darker skin tone were focal points of racism and segregation. The racism associated with African-Americans was a general experience that persisted even after the abolishment of slavery. One effective means of alleviating racial stereotyping was relating African-Americans to Caucasians within the equality of being American citizens. Langston Hughes, in his short poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers, generalizes not just being American, but the experiences throughout history. Hughes’ poem shows relative cultural and historical events to promote an integrated lineage among all races. Hughes work ethic, style, technique and achievement lead to him being an innovative writer.

Langston Hughes, a gentleman of color who was a leader to the African American community is a poet, who according to an editor of “Harlem Renaissance” portrayed the truth rather than a sugar-coated version of how life was in Harlem, the hub of the black community. Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem” describes how colored people live in poverty, in the poem “Dream Variations” Hughes’ dream was symbolized by nature, and in the short story “Slave on the Block,” racism and life of a domestic slave are shown from his point of view. The time when these pieces of work were created was an era when black artistry was opening the eyes of white America to how poorly Afro Americans were treated; this movement was called the Harlem Renaissance, as said in “Harlem Renaissance”. In this movement, Hughes was a force of nature that pursued equality among all races, yet still maintaining integrity and pride. White America was not a welcoming place for people of melanin, white people were not sentimental or generous with them so people say it was more described as, “The cold, uncaring atmosphere of the United States were for blacks discrimination, racism, and often brutal treatment were a feature of everyday life” (“Dream”). Not only did Hughes have to endure the pain of this treatment but so did all colored people.

The aforementioned are perhaps his most compelling arguments consist of the fact that, yes, race with its often concurrent circumstances, can and do limit options not only for the artist but art appreciation. Secondly, I think he is right when he relates the ultimate futility of materialism; however, I doubt that African-Americans, by virtue of the past, are any less susceptible to these phenomena than their white counterparts. Indeed, even when the United States elected an African-American President, while a turning point in American history, it didn’t automatically herald a Golden Age of enlightenment. If anything it was an anticlimax; it merely revealed that revealed people are not their skin colors; and that we still have the same issue no matter what race or gender resides in the oval office. Want to change the world? Every marketing company seems to know how, if they say that everyone who is “with it” has forsaken dial-up for high-speed internet, then sooner or later people will buy into that ethos and spend accordingly. Ditto: a product or service that vendors claim will improve how we or others perceive ourselves as individuals. As recent

Langston Hughes is an extremely successful and well known black writer who emerged from the Harlem Renaissance (“Langston Hughes” 792). He is recognized for his poetry and like many other writers from the Harlem Renaissance, lived most of his life outside of Harlem (“Langston Hughes” 792). His personal experiences and opinions inspire his writing intricately. Unlike other writers of his time, Hughes expresses his discontent with black oppression and focuses on the hardships of his people. Hughes’ heartfelt concern for his people’s struggle evokes the reader’s emotion. His appreciation for black music and culture is evident in his work as well. Langston Hughes is a complex poet whose profound works provide insight into all aspects of black

"Most of my own poems are racial in theme and treatment, derived from the life I know. In many of them, I try to grasp and hold some of the meanings and rhythms of jazz. I am as sincere as I know how to be in these poems and yet after every reading I answer questions like these from my own people: Do you think Negroes should always write about Negroes? I wish you wouldn 't read some of your poems to white folks. How do you find anything interesting in a place like a cabaret? Why do you write about black people? You aren 't black. What makes you do so many jazz poems? But jazz to me is one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America; the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul—the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile." Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes was a poet with many artistic abilities. His writing and drawings established the lifestyles of many African Americans during this time. In a poem called “I, Too” Hughes express his feelings as an African American, a brother, and someone who deserves to fit in society. He states “I, too sing America” (1039). Hughes saw himself as an individual who has a voice in America even though his skin is a little darker. In a poem called “Democracy” Hughes states: “I have as much right as the other fellow has to stand on my own two feet and own the land” (1043). Hughes was speaking for every African American whom were still dealing with segregation, racism, and freedom.

In the essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” by Langston Hughes, Hughes discussed how African Americans felt belittled about their culture and of themselves because they were not white. The African Americans sensed that white people were better than them, so they embraced the white peoples ‘art, music, and literature instead of their own. Hughes then go on to talk about one of the main problems in the African American families, by conversing that the African American parents try to conform to the ways of white families- comparing high class, middle class, and the low class.

The time was appropriate for Hughes and other youthful Negro authors. There was a rising enthusiasm for the dark man as a craftsman, a developing peruser dispatch for diaries like The Crisis and Opportunity, and a social complex in New York City that gave a situation in which blacks could meet powerful white analysts and distributers. It was the time alluded to as the Harlem Renaissance or the New Negro Movement. The Negro who composed, sang, or painted was viewed as a representative for the since quite a while ago abused race. The Negro had a legacy from old Africa, he had slave melodies to sing and stories of corruption and savagery to tell. From the perspective of the whites, a portion of the help for the Harlem Renaissance originated from a feeling of blame. From the perspective of the blacks, the renaissance was really a resurrection, an opportunity to make the most of their own way of life out of the blue. In "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" Hughes represented every single dark craftsman when he announced that the youthful Negro scholars, in the soul of Whitman, planned to commend themselves and their way of life without dread or disgrace and without subservience to white or dark commentators. By the age of twenty-four Hughes had set up a lucky record of distribution, won two vital prizes, distributed his initially book, and progress toward becoming companions with compelling analysts and pundits. In surveying the powers at work amid this time, he stated,

Slavery and segregation, two periods of U.S. history during which African Americans were legally denied equal rights, uniquely impact black ideas regarding visually. This division tracks black writers’ evolution from approaching visually as a means to define Americans’ superior moral vision to examining the way black vision comes to denote a modern crisis of cultural identity. The literature of both eras, although by no means uniform, affirms the persistent link writers forge between their representation of black vision and pedagogy. To establish this connection, writers invariably focus on traditional pieces of art and conventional observational practices. Conversely, many Africans American artists who begin publishing during and beyond the

Langston Hughes was the leading voice of African American people in his time, speaking through his poetry to represent blacks. His Influence through his poems are seen widely not just by blacks but by those who enjoy poetry in other races and social classes. Hughes poems, Harlem, The Negro speaks of rivers, Theme for English B, and Negro are great examples of his output for the racial inequality between the blacks and whites. The relationship between whites and blacks are rooted in America's history for the good and the bad. Hughes poems bring the history at large and present them in a proud manner. The injustice that blacks face because of their history of once being in bondage is something they are constantly reminded and ridiculed for but must overcome and bring to light that the thoughts of slavery and inequality will be a lesson and something to remember for a different future where that kind of prejudice is not found so widely.

How far are you willing to fight to keep all the rights you have right now? Now imagine those right never belonged to you but applied to everyone else, is that fair? Yes, be treated as lesser by everyone else with the great rights you don’t have. No, make a stand in any way possible till you get those right to be equal.In a article online it states, “Hughes never did abandon the language of racial protest; a revealing measure of his influence may be found in famous works whose titles are themselves quotations from his poems.” (Sundquist). Langston Hughes was a very famous African American that wrote about the problem that African Americans faced in the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a time where African American culture started to flourish and be appreciated for the work and talent that they have. Hughes challenged racism with his poems and every poem has a different point of view of what African Americans were going through and fight for. Langston Hughes’s poems Rivers, Too, Dreams, and Refugee each have a clear message in them about civil rights for African Americans.