Alain Locke The New Negro Analysis

In The New Negro, by Alain Locke, Locke shows the realities of the African-American culture in the early twentieth century. In his anthology, which includes many different forms of art, he tries to depict this idea of the “New Negro”. He calls for a shift from the “Old Negro” into this idea of a New Negro. According to Locke, the New Negro is this idea of changing the African-American approach towards prejudicial views. He believed the advancement of the culture must be through education and the arts. Locke’s inclusion of Compromise by Willis Richardson in his anthology further depicts this idea of the New Negro and what the process for the advancement of the African-American culture should be. In order to understand …show more content…
In this play, Ben Carter killed Jane’s son, accidentally. He got away with it by paying a hundred bucks to her husband. The fact that his father compromised with Ben Carter angered Alec. This anger escalated when Annie [his sister] was involved in a situation with Jack Carter and his mother, Jane decided to compromise for their education. Alec as a response to this breaks Jack Carter’s arm; however, he is forced to hide from the law enforcement due to his skin color. This play addresses the radicals of the New Negro because of their sentimental appeal to the racial prejudice. Sentimental appeal is the idea of using one’s own emotions against the individual. Willis Richardson all throughout his play, depicts the idea of the fact that if an African-American person does something the consequences will be different than if a white person does it. Jane says that the idea of Alec breaking Jack Carter’s arm is very different from the fact that Ben Carter shot Joe (193). Ben Carter justifies the fact that Joe’s murder was completely accidental and technically not a murder (173). This directly creates Locke’s vision, Ben Carter is shown as using the mentality and the fear in Jane that if she tries to do something the world around her will collapse. This idea of the world collapsing is connected to the Old Negro in which Locke believes that the African-American culture should part from this sentimentality amongst society and try to create an image for themselves. Part of this vision is to not look for philanthropic guidance from the white society. Philanthropic guidance is the idea of a certain group or person giving aid for the benefit of others. In Compromise, Ben Carter promised to educate Jane’s children for