Deprivation In Discrimination In Langston Hughes's The Way Of White Folks
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Deprivation in Discrimination
During the Harlem Renaissance, African American culture demonstrated literature, music, and art. It marked a movement when white America started incorporating and recognizing African Americans. However, before the Harlem Renaissance, discrimination was at its highest peak; African Americans were treated like property, and violence was used as a persuasive, and psychological technique. Individuals that were targeted had to cope mentally and emotionally due to the agony that racism caused. Conflicts were created from an individual aspect, based off of prejudicial actions or comments, causing individuals to feel harmed with trauma and pain. This idea is illustrated in Langston Hughes 's collection The Way of White Folks. Langston Hughes’s inspiration was created by his own life in Harlem, New York. He had a strong sense of racial pride which was demonstrated through his mix of blues and jazz with traditional forms, giving him a unique style. Langston Hughes investigates the emotional anguish caused by discrimination through Slave on the Block, and The Blues I’m Playing using overt racism, covert racism, and classism.
Hughes is able to prove how discrimination causes emotional anguish through characterizing individuals as overt racists in The Slave on the Block. Mrs. Carraway, a bossy, middle class white folk, is said to be “an evident racist. She reveals her contempt for black servants, especially if they talk back to her” (Kellman 4017) . Mrs.