Langston Hughes Vs Cornel West Essay

Great Essays
For as long as mankind has been recording history, this Earth has been filled with intolerant and racist people. For someone reason people have always treated people that are different than themselves in a negative way. It’s impossible to count how many people have suffered due to the mistreatment of people that can’t comprehend change or how people are all different. Of course many people know back than if you didn’t have blue eyes or blonde hair were considered inferior, lower than trash even not human. Many people think that racism doesn’t exist because we have so many different races doing complex things and other high paying jobs. People now have thrown racism under the rug but racism is still a big ‘problem’, Racism has become a complex subject so you can’t consider it just a ‘problem’.

Cornel West remains an African American scholar, who beforehand worked at Harvard University, at the present he works at Princeton in place of a instructor. West states at the beginning of his overview that "What happened in Los Angeles in April of 1992 was neither a race riot nor a class rebellion. Rather, this monumental upheaval was a multiracial, trans-class, and largely male display of justified social rage", what West is saying is that people that
…show more content…
Langston Hughes exists as an innovator of African American poetry as well as the Harlem resurgence era. Growing up within numerous diverse metropolises in addition to living with various kin, Langston Hughes experienced scarcity. Hughes took part in poetry to express his emotions to other individuals. Hughes devoted his verses to the fights, immodesty, visions, and ethnic inequalities of African American society. In poems “Democracy” and “I, Too, Sing America” Hughes expresses his profound disgust on behalf of racial discrimination as well as his particular familiarities with

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Richards Bizot’s book closely analyzes the content of the original poem “Harlem”. The Author carefully examines Langston Hughes life in the 1920’s. A period in America where there were many frustrated dreams of “African Americans” (Bizot p3). He explains that the poem is a natural reaction of the many changes colored Americans felt shortly after World War II.…

    • 247 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Using his poetic artistry, he encompassed African music such as blues and jazz in his poems. Moreover, because of his unique way of portraying the African lifestyle he was criticized by many black intellectuals and the white press. In some of his poems he promoted the American dreams and dignity. Langston believed that one day African American will be free and able to pursue careers. Moreover, his poems expressed the feelings, fears, and dreams of African American`s urging them to find dignity in their daily struggles.…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the time of the Harlem Renaissance, racism was an issue. Although it still is today, in the mid 1920s, it was ten times worse back then. In his writing, he showed expressions which he believed that one day, the African American society would be able to live and prosper in peace (Overview of (James) Langston Hughes). He writes his poetry about the workers who are basically still enslaved because they have little to know way of being successful. For example, in his poem called Harlem, he explains what could happen to a human’s dreams when they are “deferred” or kept on the back burner, left behind, and forced to change.…

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Langston Hughes Satire

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Through the use of his poem, “The Weary Blues,” Langston expands on the insurmountable abyss that lies between the common American and the disgruntled black man. The Blues, as Langston described them, was music that incorporated laughter with disaster. While the rhythms would cry out for help and understanding, the lyrics would merrily wave the rhythm’s serious tone away. And yet, the blues were never truly realized by the listeners unless they had previously experienced similar situations and were able to understand what the singers had gone through. In addition, the blues also influenced the form in which Hughes’s poems were written and dictated the length for each line.…

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Langston Hughes lived in a time of racial segregation. Although he grew up in the North Hughes wanted the “American Dream” just like everyone else and even though he was free, he did not receive all of the same rights as the white men. So Hughes started writing poetry, spoke speeches, went into some of the Civil Rights movements. But he is the most famous for his poetry, in the poem Let America Be America Again, Hughes writes how he wants the American dream but America is not letting him have the American dream he believes it to be, “There’s never been equality for me, No freedom…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As Hughes wrote, “there’s never been equality for me/Nor freedom in this ‘homeland of the free,’” he was inspired by his childhood and the issues that his racial and social differences brought him. Langston Hughes was a poor African-American in the early 20th century, and because of this, he wrote primarily about the American dream…

    • 1370 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Langston Hughes Allusions

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Although many of his poems received a massive amount of attention, his poems based on the want, but lack, of the American Dream are heavily impactful due to Hughes’ inputs of allusions, the point of view, and his strong use of imagery. In many of Hughes’ poems, he often includes allusions to past African-American events which led him and others to believe that the American Dream was either out of reach or not fully available for dark colored people. The inclusion of alluding many experiences that African Americans suffered from helps the reader clearly understand the poem’s main message. A perfect example of one of Hughes’ allusions is presented in his poem, Negro. This specific piece has to do with a detailed description of the history of African-Americans or blacks, “I’ve been a slave: Caesar told me to keep his door-step clean.…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Langston Hughes wrote “Harlem” as a prediction of the upcoming clash African Americans would embrace in order to gain civil liberties. The poem also serves as a rallying cry to those pondering what to do with their frustration of the way blacks were treated in America before the civil rights movement. Hughes delivers an emotional appeal to readers, urging them to wake up and see the future of a people bursting with ambition but held back by discrimination. In the poem "Harlem" Hughes uses figurative language to powerfully convey the consequences of oppression which deny black Americans the dream of equality. Hughes uses similes, anaphora, alliteration, and metaphor to help the reader visualize and empathize with the plight of African Americans…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although Hughes had trouble with both black and white critics, he was the first black American to earn his living solely from his writing and public lectures. Part of the reason he was able to do this was the phenomenal acceptance and love he received from average black people” (Poetry 1). This speaks volumes because even though Hughes was knocked down and struggled throughout his life and career he still managed to bring attention to key issues and African Americans were thankful for that. He started out in the Harlem Renaissance speaking out and gaining attention to the inequalities and then shifted to a Marxist approach and spoke out about capitalism, but in each areas he was…

    • 1261 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Racism In Education Essay

    • 1382 Words
    • 6 Pages

    "Racism is taught in our society, it is not automatic. It is learned behavior toward persons with dissimilar physical characteristics,” (“Alex Haley Famous Quotes”). The idea of racism has always been a part of the history of the United States. It is a very important issue that is faced today and has impacted the lives of millions. Racism is the belief that some races of people are better than others (Merriam-Webster).…

    • 1382 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Racism is as old as old as a dial-up: It isn’t needed. Feeling like your better than someone because of their skin pigment is lame. People who are racist are simply sad individuals. The fact that people feel you’re superior and deserve special rights due to your skin is absolutely ignorant. Racism in other words is simply just a waste.…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When facing adversity people either have positive or negative feeling about the outcome. They are either optimistic or pessimistic. In the past, African Americans were under oppression and often expressed their feelings about the future through literature. In his poem, “The White House”, Claude McKay talks about adversity that he has faced trying to fit in the society while Langston Hughes, in his poem “I Too Sing America”, states that he feels that he is an American. While both poems talk about hardships that African Americans face, they contrast in authors’ views of African Americans in the society.…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hughes, Langston. “I Too. Sing America.” New York Times 5 Jan 2010: A16 Online.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    His poems focus on themes of racism, oppression and self-love whilst maintaining an metaphorical and symbolic nature. He communicates African American frustration in the majority of his work. “I,Too”, “Mother to Son” and “Harlem” are concerned with the treatment of African Americans in the US and convey potent messages about the racism and oppression Black people faced in America. Hughes also utilises poetic techniques and rhythms traditionally used in African folk tales and Children’s nursery rhymes. He also employs a colloquialized vernacular to make his work more accessible and relatable to other African…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the 1900s, the effects of Jim Crow laws, segregation, and general racism became a hallmark of its time period and a major challenge for black Americans to overcome. In “America” by Claude McKay, although McKay loves the feeling he derives from overcoming the prejudiced challenges America contains, he sees a future where inequalities will fade leading to a truly inclusive America. Langston Hughes, in “I, Too, Sing America,” offers another perspective in which he feels he has no voice in contemporary America, yet sees a future in which his voice will not be questioned. While both Hughes and McKay feel hope in the future of America, Hughes strives in the prejudiced challenges of the current state of America, while McKay feels as if he is a…

    • 891 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays