Racial Mountain

In Langston Hughes’ seminal essay of 1926 “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”, he offers a compelling critique of the black upper-middle class while applauding lower, working class black Americans for what he sees as the primary difference between these well-defined class groups. Hughes argues that the “low-down folks” embrace their African American heritage while the “high-class Negro” is embarrassed by it, so they reject it in an effort to better assimilate into “the mold of American standardization” (91-92). He uses two anecdotes to support this central argument of the essay, the first being a conversation between Hughes and a young, middle class black poet who told him “I want to be a poet--not a Negro poet” which Hughes interprets as a longing to be white (91). The second is a story about a “prominent Negro clubwoman in Philadelphia” who said she would pay to see a white musician but would not pay to see a black singer. These narratives add to the layers of class-based hostility embedded in Hughes’ argument, supporting his point that upper-middle class black Americans appreciate white aesthetics more than black ones--this is the racial mountain Hughes believes black artists must climb. …show more content…
He believes it is the duty of young Negro artists to change negative notions of blackness through their work so the black American no longer says, consciously or subconsciously, “I want to be white” and instead says “Why should I want to be white? I am a Negro--and beautiful?” (95). This idea of climbing the “racial mountain” becomes a manifesto of sorts for the Harlem Renaissance, and in this movement where art is utilized as a force of social change much of the work produced conveys and confirms the beauty of blackness Hughes calls