English 5522 - Literary Theory and Criticism
Are Feminists and Blacks Different In Their Method To Be Heard?
After reading Hugh's essay, I came back to something in the introduction that seems to encapsulate "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." His essay "succinctly captures the varied pressures under which the African American artist labors" (1311). The artist is open to attacks by both whites and blacks. Hughes would say that the upper and middle class blacks are guilty of hiding their heritage. They should adjust their view of the black race and begin to embrace the beauty and solidarity the Negro. But the message is more toward the lower class black. How can he become viable as an artist with the whites and blacks sweeping their heritage under the rug? Hughes' answer is by indifference. There must be a conscious effort to ignore the sentiment by both races and to cultivate "an art that is true to itself" (1312).
In the beginning of the essay, Hughes quotes Countee Cullen as saying, "I want to be a poet-not a Negro poet" (1313). Hughes reduced that phrase until he got at the "true meaning." According to Hughes, Cullen meant, "I would like to be white" (1313). My inclination when I read that was to disagree with Hughes' assessment. However, as I read on and understood more fully the mentality of the Negro at this time, I was more apt to go along with Hughes. At first, I thought Hughes must be over-exaggerating. My reaction is most likely due to my own experience of how African Americans I've known have erratically pulled the "race card" as the automatic problem to an issue. This reality has even become the punch line of jokes in the movies. In the Eddie Murphy movie, "Boomerang," the co-star complains that the waiter is racist because he offered them asparagus spears as opposed to tips. BUT! If the black man is constantly hearing from his own race how well another race does things he might indeed wish to be the other race. "And so," says Hughes, "the word white comes to be unconsciously a symbol of all the virtues" (1314). The key word here, it seems to me, is unconsciously. The desire to be something other than who you are can be a real problem to overcome, especially if you cannot identify what the problem is. If Hughes' assertion is indeed correct, what was the impact on his black readership? I can imagine the resistance to the idea that the blacks were losing their identity. Did this matter to the upper class blacks, or did they truly desire to change themselves into something else? They married the lightest women they could find, attended fashionable churches, etc.
I think the real key to escaping "this escape of race" is in the hands of the lower class individual. Why? Because he has nothing to lose, and he does not "particularly care whether [he is] like white folks or anybody else" (1314). The bottom line is that he is "not afraid to be himself" (1314).
Here is my question: It seems like the feminist movement has been a much louder battle than the Negro Renaissance. What do you think has attributed to the slow and steady rise in black literature as opposed to the trumpet blast of women's literature?