Racism and Discrimination Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Racism and Discrimination - Essay Example When they come to the realization that they had been suppressed and oppressed, and their own individual human rights and those of the race are very adversely affected and endangered, they feel isolated from the society. As a result they long for a cultural identity for the blacks in America. Thus many Afro-American writers have tried to instill black racial pride in the minds of regress. The Harlem Renaissance and the civil rights movement of the 1950s played major roles in this change of outlook. Langston Hughes strongly believed that the educated black elite should lead blacks to liberation. Most of his poems exhort the readers to be proved of one’s black identity and raise one’s voice against any sort of injustice: â€Å"In poem ‘Theme for English B,’ by Langston Hughes, Hughes talks about the African American struggle of equality. This is a common subject for Hughes. In many of his poems, he speaks about blacks and the injustice that they face.† (Theme for English B; Hunnie 522-2006. Planet Papers). Hughes stressed the importance of a racial consciousness and cultural rationalism and encouraged blacks to take pride in their own diverse black folk culture and black aesthetics. The poem â€Å"The Theme for English B,† expresses Hughes’ experience as the only African American in an all white composition class in the 1920s. His English instruction asks him to write a poem and remarks â€Å"And let that page come out of you†¦ Then, it will be true.† This makes the poet to think of his black ideality and he expresses the blacks’ desire to eat, sleep and be in love just like the white man. He is afraid that because he is black, his writings would be discarded as mere blackish babblings: â€Å"I guess being colored doesn’t make me NOT like the same things other folks like who are other races. So will my page be colored that I write?† (Hughes, Langston. â€Å"Themes for English