Harlem Renaissance Writers “We Negro writers, just by being black, have been on the blacklist all our lives. Censorship for us begins at the color line” - Langston Hughes. During the 1900s, there was a lot of discrimination towards black people because of their skin colour. As a result,the “New Negro Movement started in Harlem, New York, which later on evolved into “The Harlem Renaissance.” It was an influential period for black writers such as Langston Hughes, poet of works such as “Harlem” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and Countee Cullen, creator of the poems “Incident” and “Tableau.” Literary works during this period were influenced by incidents that had happened to the Harlem Renaissance writers. Poets such as Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen wrote about their own encounters with racism.
Now I was eight and very small
And he was no whit bigger
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue and called me, “Nigger”(“Incident” 5-8).
Cullen was looking back at time when he was younger when he was called a racial slur just because of his skin colour. Many other African Americans went through something similar, where a white person would be discriminatory towards them because of how they look, which is why the poem became very popular.
We remember the job we never had
Never could get
And can’t have now
Because we’re …show more content…
Both Hughes and Cullen described their own experiences with discrimination and how it affected them through works of poetry that motivated other black people to write about their struggles with racism. Black people during the 1900s were all mistreated and frowned upon pretty much their whole lives and are still mistreated today.. The Harlem Renaissance was a very important period for black people because it sparked a thought within them that being accepted by the white people was now less important to
Now I was eight and very small
And he was no whit bigger
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue and called me, “Nigger”(“Incident” 5-8).
Cullen was looking back at time when he was younger when he was called a racial slur just because of his skin colour. Many other African Americans went through something similar, where a white person would be discriminatory towards them because of how they look, which is why the poem became very popular.
We remember the job we never had
Never could get
And can’t have now
Because we’re …show more content…
Both Hughes and Cullen described their own experiences with discrimination and how it affected them through works of poetry that motivated other black people to write about their struggles with racism. Black people during the 1900s were all mistreated and frowned upon pretty much their whole lives and are still mistreated today.. The Harlem Renaissance was a very important period for black people because it sparked a thought within them that being accepted by the white people was now less important to