respond to 2 classmates discussion post

so this is the assignment:

For this discussion board post, I would like you to put Alain Locke’s “The New Negro” in dialogue with two or more of the literary works by Hughes, Hurston, and/or Larsen that we read for the week. In what ways does the literature exemplify or embody various ideas articulated by Locke? Are there things that seem to contradict or defy Locke’s observations and/or prescriptions. Be specific and provide textual evidence from both “The New Negro” as well as from the literature to back up your claims.

My post was :

Alain Locke (4), describes new psychology among the Negros after the renaissance. The New Negro had smashed the old Negros’ ideology that was based on social, psychological, and racial obstacles that impeded the African Americans’ achievements. The genesis of the Negros movement was Harlem (Locke 8). The Harlem Renaissance led to political participation, Pan-Africanism, modernism, emergence of Negros newspaper, the emergence of theatres of arts and Jazz age.

Various literatures exemplify Lock ideas. Hughes’ poem “The Weary Blues” expresses weariness, disappointments, and difficulties among Negros (Hughes 6). However, instead of using violence, he resorts to music in expressing the disappointments. This shows ideological change from violence to peaceful presentation of grievances. Hurston in the short story “Sweet” is about domestic violence common among Negros (Hurston 80). By allowing her husband to die after being bitten by the snake symbolizes women’s desire for liberalization from male chauvinism.

These works also contradicts Locke’s ideas. The society of New Negro had instances of violence; therefore, renaissance had not yet been achieved. Initially, most African American women faced violence and rape from their husbands and masters (Hurston 77). The two short stories by Huston show the presence of violence against women. The Negros lifestyle had not changed as explained by Locke.

In conclusion, the New Negros’s ideology begun to emerge in Harlem making the blacks to feel incorporated in American lifestyle. However, the individuals had not changed their ideologies about violence against women, hence showing little renaissance.

I would like you to respond to two other classmates posts:

post #1: Foremost, understanding the texts of the Harlem Renaissance is to set out an understanding of the varied cultural, socioeconomic, and political tensions that existed in that time period. When aiming to analyze and understand the text by Locke, one notes the ways that the Urban landscape acts as a key player to the underlying themes. The Harlem Renaissance marked by it’s boundless creative expression in the arts sparked political transformation for a marginalized group of individuals seeking continued growth in society. As noted in the following quote from Locke’s text one can see the themes I am stating, “A main change has been, of course, that shifting of the Negro population which has made the negro problem no longer exclusively or even predominately Southern. Why should our minds remain sectionalized, when the problem itself no longer is? Then the trend of migration has not only been toward the North and the Central Midwest, but city-ward and to the great centers of industry – the problems of adjustment are new, practical, local, and not peculiarly racial. Rather they are an integral part of the large industrial and social problems of our present-day democracy” (Locke, 5). What this extensive piece of dialogue from the text presents is how a marginalized and very racially focused group of individuals expanded through integration into cities and their problems are now more so in line with the normative views that are shared by individuals working and surviving in the changing landscape of America.

Both Hughes and Hurston mirror these themes of racial progression and continued, abstract, tension in works. In a notable work by Langston Hughes titled, “I, Too” (1926) this notion that despite being a marginalized and abused group, Hughes is part of this new American rhetoric that is focusing on continued growth towards a unified vision. This is evident in the opening lines of the poem, “I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes” (Hughes, lines 1-4). The very first line clearly indicates that Hughes is marking his, and other African American’s, place in the American population – yet he goes forward and makes clear the issues that are present. The color of his skin, the “darker brother” that eats in the kitchen shows the status of a second-class citizen, and again we explore the inclusion African Americans were starting to feel but how it was still limited. In Hurston’s “Sweat” the following character description can be applicable, “She was young and soft then, but now she thought of her knotty, muscled limbs, her harsh knuckly hands, and drew herself up into an unhappy little ball in the middle of the big feather bed” (Hurston, 76). This description acts as a metaphor noting the perhaps blind ignorance and safety of a life that was unbothered by new challenges. This in no way indicates that the experiences had before the Harlem Renaissance were safe, quite the opposite, but the notion focuses more so on this existence beyond the city that was one dependent on the service work that so much had defined the group.

post #2: The New Negro, by Alain Locke, essentially expresses the main idea for most of the literary works of the Harlem Renaissance. Not only were these authors introducing the idea of “the new negro” by challenging society to perceive African Americans differently but also, uplifting the “old negro” stereotypes. Locke explains that Harlem, in New York city, was an outlet for blacks looking for new opportunities and social freedom. “Here in Manhattan is not merely the largest Negro community in the world, but the first concentration in history of so many diverse elements of Negro life” (Locke 6). Because Harlem became a race-capital, whites started to feel intimidated by the up-roaring culture. He goes on to say, “In the intellectual realm a renewed and keen curiosity is replacing the recent apathy; the Negro is being carefully studied, not just talked about and discussed” (Locke 9). Although similar ideas can be seen in the poem called Let American be America again by Langston Hughes, Hughes doesn’t just refer to black but to all immigrants. Hughes questions society by saying, “I am the immigrant clutching the hope i seek and finding only the same stupid plan of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak”(Hughes 22-24). Here we can see that he wasn’t just addressing African americans but all immigrants regardless of their race. He explains how society needed to have a racial uplift. Although both authors talked about races, Locke referred to African Americans only. Nevertheless Hughes does agree with Locke by referring to Harlem as a safe haven. “O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas in search of what meant to be my home…And torn from the Black Africa’s strand i came to build a “homeland of the free”(Hughes 45-50). Harlem was the homeland of the free and as explained by Locke and Hughes, a place where culture was accepted. Another poem of Hughes that agrees to Locke’s idea of changing societies perspective was the literary work called, “Theme for English B”. “I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races. So will my page be colored that i write?” (Hughes 25-27). Again, we see here that the “New negro” does not conform to the stereotypes society had made of African Americans. Both authors suggest that other races shouldn’t be viewed as minorities and that society needed to change perspectives.

Apart from the main ideas of escaping segregation expressed by these two authors, I wanted to address another perspective and propose a question. White Americans feared that African Americans would have social power but did they have a point to fear a social revolution? Referring back to naturalism, did heredity play a big role in determining the future of blacks?

 

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