The Unfortunate Reality for Racism in the Poetry of Langston Hughes

The black community has faced countless numbers of social injustices throughout their lives which is what Langston focuses his pieces around. Though many people would like for equality to be true, society is a ways away from making that the case. Langston Hughes poetry we will discuss shines light on the topic of black lives in America during the time of the 1920s.

Hughes was seen as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance, which was a time period where people assisted in helping others acknowledge and celebrate black culture instead of belittling their lifestyle. He uses his experiences throughout life as his inspiration for each poem and the poems are still relevant in today’s world which draws readers, including myself, to read his pieces of literature. In “You and Your Whole Race” Hughes describes the irritation when discussing how some of the black community was unsure how to move forward from past and present hardships endured, so they accepted the unequal treatment. He was sending a message declaring they must “look down upon white folks… and upon [themselves]… and be ashamed;” (Lines 4–6) due to the fact that they have simply allowed their future to be substantially different than that of a white person.

Though it may not seem like Hughes’s pieces of literature are positively hopeful “Daybreak in…