Racial Pride In Zora Neale Hurston

Racism is a prominent issue or a serious problem in the American society since the beginning and the Americans are still struggling to eradicate this problem from their land. American soil has witnessed civil rights movements concerning this issue in the past. However in 1920, a movement got initiated to promote black identity known as Harlem Renaissance. It was also a fine arts movement that led to an increase in black confidence, literacy rate, and black culture. Writers wrote about their roots and the current society.

Hurston describes her adventurous and naive self: she would become aware of her race when all the white folks in town “liked to hear [her] speak in pieces and sing...” and they would often give her money for it. She yearned for the attention and interest from those that viewed her as different. She describes that the black townsfolk often “deplored joyful tendencies” (Hurston). Wherefore, Hurston illustrates that she was never able to fit in her own community, and especially not with the white townspeople. Hurston creates an aura of self-acceptance and self-love.

The concept of moving up in social ranks amongst black people introduces the statuses of the folk, the bourgeois, and the proletarians, to African American society and literature. The writers of the Harlem Renaissance produce work that focuses on ideas like race, class, marriage, and identity. African American writers who move north now have something more to write about than just the “poor negro.” These writers are now able to add depth to their characters and give them

In 1936 she returned back to the US to star in Ziegfeld Follies, despite the fact that she was a huge celebrity in Europe, American crowds hated the idea of a black woman with so much limelight, newspaper reviews were just as cruel as the audience(The New York Times called her a “Negro wench”), Josephine returned to Europe displeased with the outrageous act. Baker’s star status continued to rise in theater and in movies. During her stay in France, she finally become a French citizen. She got citizenship by marrying Jean Lion; her third husband. Her love for France was obvious because her participation in the French Resistance during World War II.

Instead of saying “We are all humans” as Hughes did in the story, in this poem, he has a more modest but no less veritable pronouncement: we are all Americans. The poem smacks with pride – and rightfully so – as much as it flowers with confidence and firmness. With the bold statements captured in this poem, Hughes was able to assert the face of the Black American and hoped, if not foretold a future when they, the “darker brother,” and their “whiter” brothers we can presume they have, will be under a single name: all as

“I, Too” creates the world where people are treated equally. With so much discrimination and segregation occurring in the 20th century, it was a world that people wished for. The poem could be considered as patriotic. The poem talks about how the speaker has darker skin, and how he is usually sent to the kitchen to eat while there is people over. He then imagines a day where he can eat at the table with others and that they will see how beautiful he is and how “ashamed” (Hughes, 17) they were for their previous thoughts of him.

Throughout the story, Babo never leaves Captain Cereno’s side, and Captain Delano admires their relationship that appears to him more like a loyal companionship. He is so moved he even offers to buy Babo asking, “What will you take for him? Would fifty doubloons be any object?” highlighting how his racial bias totally blinds him from the fact that Babo’s attentiveness is not motivated by good intentions (61). His incapability to see Babo as anything other than an attentive servant warps his perception of the situation overall. Had he not possessed racist views, he might have picked up on the dysfunction of the ship early

While Joe is admiring Pip’s writing by the fireplace in their home, Pip asks why Joe never learned to read. Joe then explains that his father was an abusive drinker, and he kept removing Joe from schooling. Charles Dickens writes, “rendering unto all their doo, and maintaining equal justice betwixt man and man, my father were that good in his hart, don’t you see?”(35). This demonstrates that Joe is forgiving because even though his father ruined his childhood, Joe still stated that he was good in his heart. Joe’s father kept him out of school, beat him and his mother, and even would track them down if they were to run away.

Yet he was often criticized by some for using his poetry as a source of “protest” almost as if he was punished for bring blunt and honest about the experience of being black. When in fact he was using his platform to not only to advocate his strong sense of racial pride but to celebrate African American culture, history and spirituality not matter how positive or negative it may have been. He advocated many of these beliefs in his pieces. For example “his conclusion to the poem, "I, too, am America" is a testament of faith in his country men and women to recognize and appreciate the contributions of African-American citizens” (Lewis,

The most influential movement in African American literary history, which contributed the phase of the “New Negro”, is known as The Harlem Renaissance. This movement played a pivotal role in creating a different identity for the black culture (History.com). Emerging in the 1920s, The Harlem Renaissance allowed black writers, artists, photographers, scholars, poets, and musicians to express their talents Part of the foundations of the movement was the Great Migration of African Americans from South to North, drastically expanding their knowledge and socioeconomic opportunities. Certainly the movement was more than literary, for having such a proximate relation to civil rights, the “New Negro” demanded civil and political privileges. Additionally, it had a revitalizing influence for African Americans to develop race pride; giving such a prestige to their work affected African Americans in a manner of desiring to reconnect with their unwanted African heritage.