Class And Identity In Langston Hughes's 'Down These Mean Streets'

Thesis statement: Hughes wrote this when Jim Crow laws were still imposing an bitter segregated society in the South. There were still lynchings of innocent African Americans, there was no Civil Rights Movement, there was no Civil Rights legislation yet, and Blacks couldn't eat at lunch counters in the South. Harlem, however, was not at all like the South in terms of blatant, legal segregation. However, racism was very much in place in many places in America. Blacks were second class citizens, their children attended schools that were ill-equipped, and the dreams of Black citizens were not being realized in this period.

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois is a influential work in African American literature and is an American classic. In this book Dubois proposes that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. In addition to these lasting concepts, Souls offers an evaluation of the progress of the races and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.

W.E.B. Du Bois, a prominent African American scholar in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, wrote many significant essays that challenged the dangerous societal view that black Americans weren’t capable of progress. In one of those essays, Strivings of the Negro People, he develops new terminology to discuss the many forces that act upon black Americans in a white dominated society, the most important of which is double-consciousness. The phrase, “double-consciousness”, refers to the division of the African American self into conflicting two facets: one being the American and the other the Negro, ever being forced to look at themselves through the eyes of a racist society.

“The history for Blacks in America starts at slavery,” the further I ponder this statement from my friend Joe, a navy veteran, the more I do not believe it to be true. Today many Blacks in America do not remember stories of their African heritage. Although, they may not know their African history, it does exist, and they did originate from Africa. So, their history does not start at slavery. In a recorded interview, Langston Hughes says he wrote the poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” in 1920, after he completed high school. Hughes also credits his source of inspiration to the Mississippi river which he passed, while on the train, to visit his father in Mexico. He acknowledged what the Mississippi symbolized to Negro people and how it was linked

The next aspect of double consciousness consists of the rejection of African Americans by white Americans and institutions. Blacks are forced to live in America, but at the same time, are not considered “true” Americans and are separated by the veil that DuBois talks about. DuBois first feels this rejection when a little girl at his school rejected his card for no reason other than his skin color. He asks, “Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house?” (Dubois 896). He describes opportunities for blacks as “relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night” (896) giving the impression that a

DuBois’ double-consciousness is quite simply the twoness of American Negroes. It is this sense of “always looking at one’s self through the

Dubois understood what it meant to be a black man having to identify with two mindsets. Yet, individuals would find it hard to walk a mile in those shoes. “The Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world, a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world” (Dubois 1). The discrimination between perception of the other and its relation to internal self can be viewed as DuBois 's veil concept or double-consciousness theory. “One ever feels his two-ness, an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder” (Dubois 1). Dubois stresses the difference between internal and external forces which contribute to certain perceptions. Double-consciousness can be a noticed but rarely analyzed subject among athletes of color.

Many people ask me where are you from and I answer I am from Puerto Rico and there reaction always is like are you sure you don’t look Puerto Rican you look more like Dominican, and often I ask myself am I Dominican or am I Puerto Rican? Piri Thomas was born in Harlem, New York he was born during the Great Depression. His mother is a light-skinned Puerto Rican and his father is Cuban and very dark. Thomas introduced himself to the world in the prologue of his memoir Down These Mean Streets. This story is about a black son of Puerto Rican and Cuban parents during the Great Depression in El Barrio, East Harlem, the dehumanizing racism he even faced within his family. Piri expends a lot of energy on his efforts to fit in. When his family moves from Harlem to Long Island, Piri is caught up in a new culture but cannot seem to fit in. Piri takes his dark coloring from his father and spends his life trying to balance the need to fit in.

“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.” (Dubois)

Many people ask me where am I from. My answer is I am from Puerto Rico. Generally, their reaction always is like are you sure? you don’t look Puerto Rican you look more Dominican. Often, I ask myself am I Dominican or am I Puerto Rican? Piri Thomas was born in Harlem, New York he was born during the Great Depression. His mother is a light-skinned Puerto Rican and his father is a dark skin Cuban. Thomas introduced himself to the world in the prologue of his memoir Down These Mean Streets. This story is about a black son of a Puerto Rican and Cuban during the Great Depression in El Barrio, East Harlem, the dehumanizing racism he even faced within his family and neighbors. When his family moves from 111th street to 114th street, Piri face’s a new culture however, he does not seem to fit in. Piri takes his dark coloring from his father and spends his adolescence trying to balance the need to fit in.

Through his work, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” W.E.B. Dubois takes the reader on a journey through the typical black man’s eyes. He creates a new meaning of the African American man as he shares personal experiences and stories of the past alike. He plays upon the heart strings of every reader, no matter the race, with his literary knowledge of words, use of pathos, and stories of his past experience to pull in emotional ties to his work. The application of dualism allows the reader, who is most commonly white men, to choose a side to sympathize with, for Dubois gives the sense of double consciousness as the African and the American throughout his entire work.

The short but inspirational poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes addresses what happens to aspirations that are postponed or lost. The brief, mind provoking questions posed throughout the poem allow the readers to reflect--on the effects of delaying our dreams. In addition, the questions give indications about Hughes' views on deferred dreams.

It doesn’t take long to figure out that race and ethnicity issues continue to affect America - a quick glance at the news will show the latest riot, hate crime, or police brutality incident. This centuries old struggle has given rise to a number of literary works on the topic, many of which take a different approach to the issue. W.E.B. Du Bois, for instance, published the work The Souls of Black Folk in 1903, arguing for blacks’ right to equality in a horrifically segregated society. In these essays, Du Bois coined the term “double-consciousness,” wherein those with black skin must view the world both from their own perspective, and from the perspective of the predominately white society. The short story Recitatif by Toni Morrison explores this concept through the removal of the characters’ races, and the film Do the Right Thing, directed by Spike Lee, tells a story to demonstrate it. While the former shows double-consciousness through the usage of ambiguity, the latter almost directly references the concept. Taken together, these two sources argue a multi-faceted version double-consciousness, wherein society alienates the characters in ways that go beyond just the color of one’s skin.

Double Consciousness refers to a concept first explored by WEB Du Bois. This describes the African American man and his identity having to be split or divided. In other words it “describes the individual sensation of feeling as though your identity is divided into several parts, making it difficult or impossible to have one unified identity” (WEB Du Bois). Moreover, Du Bois also expresses that Black Americans have lived in a society that has made them feel inferior, it can become extremely difficult for them to bind their black identify with their American identity. This can in turn, cause blacks to look at their

The idea of double consciousness, termed by W.E.B. Du Bois, for African Americans deals with the notion that one’s self has duality in being black and American. It is the attempt to reconcile two cultures that make up the identity of black men and women. One can only see through the eyes of another. A veil exists in this idea, where one has limits in how he or she can see or be seen. This individual is invisible to the onlookers of the veil, and those onlookers may be invisible to the individual. This then alters how one can truly interpret their conscious. This concept is one that has been explored in various themes of literature,