Prof.

Lemke American Cultural Studies WS 2011 -2012 Fatima Ijaz March 26, 2012 RACISM AND BLACK AMERICA My paper will look at the issue of racism that black America has faced in USA. The notion of racism seeks to displace the ideals of racial equality placed at the very heart of the American dream. Racism refers to the blind prejudice against a certain race for no other reason than the color of their skin. Such a viewpoint is opposed to the very foundations of law and thus racist ideology hurts the fabric of the American mind. This is because the system of law brings justice to all without any discrimination. I will be looking at a series of Langston Hughes poems to work out these issues, but also take a look at a protest song and some more recent music videos that feature these themes. I will also look at how artists have fought against this oppression and what tools of power they have brought to the table.

In I, too, sing America, Hughes claims that he is the dark brother who cannot eat with the family. He brings out the idea of black segregation which mistreated people

on a daily basis. The Civil Rights Movement of 1963 also fought against segregation amongst school children. In I, too, sing America, Hughes complains that America belongs to the black people also. The use of too is sarcastic and persistent and he affirms that America belongs to the black people also. In this poem Hughes stance is that the black people will not feel thwarted and abandon America or American dreams of racial equality. Rather, they will celebrate America as their own homeland. He goes on to say, But I laugh,/ and eat well/ and go strong. It is a poem of empowerment for the people of his race to not be hurt or offended by the oppression and take it in their stride. There is a sense of a fight for freedom in the lines, Tomorrow,/ Ill be at the table/ when company comes. The poem ends with a black empowerment motif of black is beautiful: Theyll see how beautiful I am. Hughes uses the personal pronoun I but he invokes the consciousness of the black race. This individualist I represents the collective mass of black people. It seems that subjection to racism created a black movement which solidified ideological separation of races in the structures of American society. The poem by Hughes is not open to a white reader. In this poem the white reader can never be the speaker of the poem. Thus the poem holds an invisible invitation to all people of color, but segregates the white people from this discourse.

Another poem by Hughes is Madam and Her Madam. In this poem he speaks as a black woman and brings her point of view to the forefront. I worked for a woman,/ she wasnt meanhad to get breakfast,/Dinner, and supper, too --It was too much/ nearly broke me down. As a black poet and thinker, Hughes works as a black feminist in this one and fights for the rights of the black women who are mistreated. The speaker

of this poem is treated like a slave. Hughes brings to attention racism in working conditions for the black race. He points out that the black woman is overworked and suggests that she is underpaid. The occurrence of the black woman as the cleaning lady and the white woman as the lady of the house is also a racial stereotype. The power dynamics in the poem suggest that it is the white woman who gives orders and the black slave that receives them. The last lines are telling of the dislike Hughes feels for the white lady: She opened her mouth./ She cried, Oh, no!/ You know, Alberta,/ I love you so! It is obvious that Hughes is suggesting real work needs to be done to get rid of racial discrimination and mere words of apparent love are not sufficient to upset the mindset of the black discourse against racism. Huges uses poems as a means of empowerment for the black people, but also as a tool for students of law. In each poem he highlights crucial incidents of racial divide and appeals to the people in authority and power to make better decisions. Such a complaint can also be found in negro spirituals like Sometimes I feel Like a Motherless Child. In this negro spiritual, the black speaker feels like an orphan whose rights are not represented by the State. The only recourse he has to get down on his knees and pray to the Lord. An early performance of this song dates back to 1870s, and it is a cry against slavery. The line O Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child, is repeated in the poem to create awareness of the double emphasis the negro spiritual places on being abandoned and motherless. Here, being motherless is also hinting on being without a motherland. In his poem Dreams, Hughes says:

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain-All, all the stretch of these great green states-And make America again! now. This is a call to independence for the people of black America. It is again an obvious lament against the incorrect standards of the American law system. He cries out for better rules and a better world where black rights will be respected. In this poem again, there are echoes of the fight for black rights, which are qualified as human rights! Langston Hughes points out that the people of black America the people, must go on in the face of absolute brutality, of stealth, and lies, and stand together and still believe in the dream of America. The selection from Dreams, ends on a note of urgency, now because there is no more time to waste. It is a poem towards an independence movement for the black people of America. It is a battle cry for freedom from the shackles of prejudiced society. In the same poem he asserts: O, yes, I say it plain,

America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath-America will be! In these lines we can notice that Hughes claims that he has in fact never been included in the American dream. He feels that America still hasnt qualified him as a legal and equal member of society. However, that does not let him give up the dream of an ideal America. He calls to the black people by speaking in a collective I, and makes every black reader rise to action and believe in the lost ideal again. He complains: O, let America be America again-The land that never has been yet-And yet must be--the land where every man is free. The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME He mocks at the notion of a free country where he has never yet felt free. The free?/ Who said the free? Not me?/ Surely not me?, Hughes brings home the idea that America belongs to the white classes but not to him! He feels his own land is not his own! He does not feel the rest and peace ones own homeland should bring to a person. In dream variations, he looks for a land where he can fling my arms wide/ In some place of the sun /To whirl and to dance/ Till the white day is done. Interestingly, even the day is white, as it is the fairer color. In I, too, sing America, he claims he is the dark brother. The English language is perhaps cruel to the black people. Puritanical standards in American history have also often called the black man as representing the

devilish being. The black man is ridiculed for the color of his skin. Puritanical morality at the roots of American history has made claims that the very word black denotes immorality and allegiances with the Devil.

It is interesting to note that incidents of black racism are encoded in the very structure of language. Hughes fights against color racism but also introduces notions of empowerment through language: Night comes on gently,/ Dark like me--/ That is my dream! Here is the notion of the night which is dark like him and is peaceful. He waits for the nights because there is no more white day. The night is qualified in this poem as a time of peace and blissful solitude for the poet and dreamer.

In Weary Blues, Hughes wails for the beauty of a black mans soul music. The title of the poem suggests his tiredness. This is perhaps against a blind struggle against injustice, bad working conditions, daily racist remarks. In Weary Blues, he imagines a soft utopia, where a negro play(s) the music. As the poet listens to him, Hughes asserts that this is the voice of black America. As the black musician plays his song, the stage now belongs to the black performer. Sweet Blues!/ Coming from a black man's soul. / O Blues! The tempo of the song of the sweet blues by the negro finally bring peace to a lamenting Hughes. It is pertinent to point out that the word negro is used as a slang and derogatory word. The very word which describes the black man is an insult and a curse! This is another point for language discrimination that is pervasive in everyday diction. In the poem by Hughes he tries to use it for its simple descriptive

value, stripped off of its negative connotations. He did a lazy sway He did a lazy sway, Hughes listens to the negros song and is an attentive critic. Perhaps due to constant racial segregation Hughes is no longer interested in attentively listening to white musicians. Crimes of racism cause divides that are long lasting and disturb the entire functionality of society. He goes on to say: With his ebony hands on each ivory key/ He made that poor piano moan with melody. Hughes carefully builds power for the black color and celebrates the beauty of a negros ebony hands. He states that this negro is in fact a great pianist. He goes on to speak about the black soul of the negro from which the sweet blues, have emerged. The negros voice can also be heard in the poem, and his words are: "Ain't got nobody in all this world, Ain't got nobody but ma self. I's gwine to quit ma frownin' And put ma troubles on the shelf." Hughes uses the actual language of the negro and claims how lonely he is. There is the use of black slang in this section of the poem which is also a belittled language in USA. Black Slang is mocked for not being authentic English. Thus, Hughes is pointing out crimes against color and language in his quest for fighting against the racist standards of so called free America.

In Dreams, Hughes brings out themes of slavery in unified America:

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, The poorest worker bartered through the years.

As he says, I am the Negro, servant to you all, the reader can pick up the rhetorical sarcasm in the line. He is suggesting that before white America makes the claim, he himself will admit that he is in fact the Negro, servant to you all. He also brings to attention that black people get marginalized jobs, they are usually just the farmer and the bondsmen. His poems assume an argumentative connotation as he argues that he is the underpaid worker, made to work like a machine. Words such as hungry, beaten and poorest betray his essential condition of depravity. He states that he is the man who has never gotten ahead and suggests that he never will unless action is taken against cruel and malignant authorities.

In the lines: The millions on relief today?/ The millions shot down when we strike?/ The millions who have nothing for our pay? he suggests that he is not the lone suffering prince of this enterprise, there are millions..millions who are suffering and he fights the cause of those marginalized people. The repetition of the word millions brings to light the huge number of people who are in danger of racist assault. This is because of the false values in racist mechanisms. Racist crimes such as language discrimination bring down the ideals of a perfect society. If America dreams of being a Super Power, then they must be a first world nation. Corruption erodes the fabric of the state. This corruption from the top kills the morality of a people. Hughes poems are a direct confrontation with authority figures.

It is possible that he got into trouble with the authority figures for his expose of racist crime. These are poems of empowerment. They take law into their own hands and brings forward cases that the police department should be reporting. Hughes claim to the marginalized black people is that now they have to take power in their own hands. His work has a call to movement in it. His use of the personal pronoun I evokes not just his own personal stake in this game, but asks other people to join in. He claims he is every black man and that all black people have one voice in his poems. These poems are written to build a sense of unification amongst the people of black America. They are written for those individuals who are unable to report their crime, the silent and unheard ones who dont know how to speak out against crime. Hughes becomes an

icon and a role model for the people of black America. His poems also have an appeal to an international audience. His poems show the condition of the black people in America, however, this has an international appeal to all nations where marginalized people exist. This universal appeal in his work qualifies it as important work.

Other icons who have fought for black rights are Martin Luther King with his Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King is a political figure, but in this paper I want to feature artists and musicians who have worked towards creating black awareness amongst the masses. These are the individuals who have worked up the black consciousness and brought it to the forefront as an active movement. Some of these individuals include the black feminists. There was a Combahee River Collective in 1974 that fought for the liberation of black women. They raised issues such as racism, sexism, and class oppression. The black feminists had to argue with the white feminists and first qualify themselves as candidates in the feminist movement. A particular notion about the black movement seems to be that validation occurs in any movement. In this way, the black movement has overlapping ideologies with the feminist movement. The feminist movement fought for the right for women to vote. Before this right is given women are not even featured in the political arena. Similarly, the black feminists validate the existence of a black feminist. Giving a marginalized person a seat is the step you need to take so that they will become equal members of society.

Other strong American role-models and icons who have fought for black empowerment are Whitney Houston, Madonna and Michael Jackson. I have picked out these three singers so that I can speak about some mainstream and popular discourse about the subject of black apartheid. Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson bring huge power to the black voice simply by being black. This is reminiscent of Langston Hughes, who brings power to black art also, but as a poet. Houston and Jackson become leading female and male icons that create a mass consciousness of black is beautiful. Houstons song Im every woman, is an appeal to the people of America that she is a black matriarchal figure in a position of power. Houston goes on to become a powerful black actress of Hollywood and in flicks such as BodyGuard stuns audiences with notions of beauty in black skin. At this same moment, I might as well point out that Houston is a solo stunt as most of Hollywood exists in stereotypical white heroes and heroines. This minority stand in the film arena makes her battle as a black woman important to the makings of Hollywood history. Another occurrence of an important black woman figure in Hollywood is featured in a Hollywood movie, Primal Fear. Here, the powerful black woman is given the character the judge. It is a position of isolated power and her word is final in all matters. This position of authority created a rare image of black power onscreen.

Madonna, a leading singer, is a white woman but as an American she too has made statements for black empowerment. I can notice this in her video for Like a Prayer. This video features a black Jesus figure which is a very controversial claim in

more conservative Christian white circles. She also makes statements of negritude and claims that black is beautiful! There is a very provocative kissing scene between a white woman and a black man and it is Madonnas way to make an appeal to equality. Her video makes the black man an attractive and enchanting man. Her controversial claim to the existence of a black Jesus hits nerves of all religious patriarchies. In her video black rights becomes a popular totem to speak of other causes that need attention such as fighting against Christian conservatives. Another music video I have selected for analysis in this paper is called They dont really care about us by Michael Jackson. This is a video created for the empowerment of the black race. It has the echoes of Hughes poems. Jackson creates a collective consciousness in his work. Similar to Hughes work, he too uses his own voice to represent the voice of the masses. In this sense Jackson becomes a rolemodel and a leader of the black people. In this video he brings to attention the oppressed state of the black people which is akin to prisoners in a jail. The video makes a metaphoric claim that society for black people is like a jail of oppression. This is because of the racist crime that occurs against the black people. They are prisoners of a system in which even the language operates against them. (For example, language discrimination such as the very word negro being an insult, black and dark being the color of the devil, dirtiness and ugliness)

This theme that Jackson brings out in his video is clarifying how the structure of black America is actually a working prison in the mind of America. Hughes poems have

already pointed out the discrimination of people in professional fields and other areas of life. Living a society with racial divides is like living in a prison. Jacksons video is a call to the black prisoners of society to take heart because he is with them and he supports them. They will all rebel against the false values of an oppressive nation. It is a song of rebellion and a call to people to fight for their rights.

The music video begins with a bunch of black children singing and fighting for their rights. The first scene places power in the hands of children. Jackson states that it is important that from that age, black children speak out against crime. He also suggests that racial crime is occurring against children also! By placing power in the hands of childrens voices, Jackson is suggesting that they will speak first. In the video, it is the children who speak first against the crimes of racism. They say: All I wanna say is that they dont really care about us. This is the title of the song and it is also what the kids chant, besides which it is the line that is repeated throughout the song. By using this line, Jackson is saying to the black masses that forget about any kind of fair play from the white authorities because they just dont care about us. He uses the third person pronoun they which claims that they are not any one specific individual but many people, and it is a blind other. By using the word they Jackson creates a dynamics of the black people and the other which is the ruling white race. He uses a strong negation in the title and claims that the white race has no sense of morality. Jackson is ofcourse aware of the triad nature of his audience. The audience for this video includes the black people, his white followings as well as the State and its

personnel. He has created the song for the black people and featured all black people in his video. However, he is a very famous American Idol and he is creating consciousness in his white followings also. To the State he is suggesting that it doesnt really care about us. The black children are clapping and rapping as they appear at the beginning of the video. They are the voices of the black children of America. The second image is the appearance of a screaming baby. It is the voice of the agitations of oppressed black America as it fights against racism crime. There are scenes of violence, prisons, prisoners and a rebellion of prisoners. Jackson is portraying the black uprising against oppression and suggesting that there is violent crime against black people for no reason. He calls it being victims of Police Brutality. By creating a scene of prisoners, Jackson is showing the oppressors as the white policemen. This runs into other themes of racial discrimination and severe surveillance methods for black people. The unjust state of the black prisoners of life is highlighted in this video.

It is obviously a song to unite the black race and also build popular appeal for the suffering of the black people. It is made to make black fights against the system a popular topic, a song that you can chant along with. Hughes work as a poet creates theoretical context and builds the image of a black poet in aristocratic circles. However, Jacksons lyrics create a context for all people to sing along with him. Jacksons medium is not poetry, rather lyrics, composition, music videos and dancing. He makes an appeal to black people to raise their voice against racism. There are political

references in the song: But if Roosevelt was living...But if Martin Luther was living. Today we could say, But if Michael Jackson was living...

The music video for They dont really care about us, features a scene of the Klu Klux Clan, a racist, terrorist faction that committed crime against blacks. It also features scenes of a bomb blast and the victims of that bomb blast. In this instant Jackson creates a scenic metaphor of the atrocities of the white authorities and white people against the black mind. It is like a bomb blast! This suggests that this is psychological violence but its appeal is like that of an actual bomb blast! Here Jackson qualifies the suffering of those who have been subjected to racist attacks as being psychologically hurt by these attacks. Psychological pain is very astute. Homi Bhaba, a black postcolonial theorist speaks about the importance of decolonizing the mind. Thus, the mental reality is featured in this discourse. The decisions of the authorities need to change, and psychological brutality needs to stop! Jackson points out that it is like a bomb blast.

As Jackson creates the nostalgia for a dead leader (If Roosevelt was living...If Martin Luther was living..) there is a plaintive echo in the song for the times of the past where movements had existed and he had had role models to follow. The lonely job of the leader is now in the hands of Jackson. It is a lonely position because he is the one who is leading the black people. He stands on top of the table in the prison house, but he too is wearing the uniform of the prisoners.

By wearing one uniform, Jackson is building commonality amongst the black. In the black movement there is no one inferior or superior, they are all just prisoners of the same system. Jackson feels that all these black people together can bring some call to action. There is a freedom movement featured in this video. Jackson also features battle cries in the song, which creates an atmosphere of lament in the video. I would like to now look at the following lyrics: Tell me what has become of my rights Am I invisible because you ignore me? Your proclamation promised me free liberty, now I'm tired of bein' the victim of shame They're throwing me in a class with a bad name I can't believe this is the land from which I came You know I really do hate to say it The government don't wanna see But if Roosevelt was livin' He wouldn't let this be, no, no

He makes an allegation against the American Dream as listed in the Constitution which promised him (black people) free liberty. He states that there is no such existence in the real day to day life. He is mocking the president, the ruling authorities and claiming that they do not know how to do their work right.

The government dont wanna see, he is suggesting that the government just turns a blind eye to them and refuses to acknowledge their existence. When he says, Am I invisible because you ignore me?, he is reminding the government and the white people of all the crimes that they have done.

It is a song to make white people aware of their crimes and to create a guilty consciousness in them. The triad nature of the American audience is tricky and Jackson is at the same time speaking to at least three different audiences inside America. These are the black classes, the oppressive white authorities and the white people of America. When he says, Am I invisible because you ignore me?, he is at once telling the black people to say it like this, to make claims against oppression. It is very difficult to report crime as a victim of brutality and state oppression. Jackson is saying that the people of black America are not alone, that he is giving them all voices in the dark. He is also asking his white followings to join in the battle of the black people and believe in the work of their famous American Idol.

In the following lyrics Jackson makes a different sort of appeal: Skin head, dead head Everybody gone bad Situation, speculation Everybody litigation

Beat me, bash me You can never trash me Hit me, kick me You can never get me He uses a set of words that describe violence: beat, bash, hit, kick, then he also uses words that connote dirtiness: bad, trash. These lines reveal some of the actual racist slang that has existed in America. As he says you can never trash me, perhaps that is what they actually used to say to them at that time. That is, that black people were trash. I have also heard this term locally in black slang in Toronto. When he says you can never get me, this is to say that no one will understand the black man again. He will become a mystery. Other songs of Jacksons that make a reference to the themes of bad are Im bad. In this work, he creates gangster consciousness for his so-called bad fellows.

I would like to look at some more lyrics from the number, They dont really care about us :

Everybody allegation In the suite, on the news Everybody dog food Black male, black mail Throw your brother in jail

In these lines, Jackson is suggesting that there is no such thing as morality anywhere in the whole system. He claims that everybody is a racist. He finds the crime everywhere, in the suite, on the news. He suggests that there is no black person that is forgiven in the machinery of the white American system. He brings to light yet another derogatory English language term which denotes a quality of morally bad conduct to a color: black mail. It would be very difficult to fight against the language itself. This is because the very language you are using is racist! He goes on to say, that black people are Americans, and they are you brother(s). Thus he is again making an appeal to humanity in the consciousness of the ruling authorities and the white people. Jackson goes on to say: I'm tired of bein' the victim of hate You're rapin' me off my pride Oh, for God's sake I look to heaven to fulfill its prophecy... Set me free As Jackson suggests different eras of politicians have come and gone (Roosevelt and Martin Luther) and yet America has not moved on to its next chapter. So he is tired of being the victim of hate. He qualifies racism as hate crime. He goes on to use a very strong word, youre rapin me off my pride and he suggests that no matter how hardworking a black person is, he will not be given due credit for his work. He will always be belittled for being a black man.

He compares this to sexual aggression and sexual violence. Perhaps because it is a crime against the black sex. It is the identity of the black people that is put to acute violence and racist remarks. Jackson keeps his refrain to: All I wanna say is that they dont really care about us/ All I wanna say is that they dont really care about us. It is his final word, that is all he wants to say. He has heard enough, gone through enough, witnessed enough crime and he just cannot take it anymore. He is now taking action against what he feels is brutality. He is suggesting that he will not be singing any other songs, than black songs unless action is taken against the millions of sufferers of racism. This racism which has destroying the fabric of daily life. The most powerful lyric in the song stands at: Dont you black or white me, which in a nutshell declares the entire movement and purpose of the song. He is no longer interested in their argument.

All these movements by black icons have brought to light in my eyes the nature of the oppression against black people in America. A Super Power that has dreams of world equality and transnational meetings will have to figure out its own racist crime in the fabric of its systems. Hughes does massive work in building up different black voices and representing each one with his own voice. Madonna, Houston and Jackson bring in popularity and mainstream into the debate. Hughes and Jackson are both bringing out isolated criminal acts into the light so that they can be minutely observed. This is so that racism will stop in

America. This has universal appeal across the world which is why it is great work. Also, as a last note Id like to add that perhaps the first black President in American History will be a statement to the black people that they can attain positions of power. After all, even the feminists have not been able to achieve that miracle.