Thursday, April 3, 2014

Injustice and Anger.

Langston Hughes' poetry is phenomenal on multiple levels. His poetry paints pictures, shows us what is going on. His poetry makes us think and wonder where America went wrong. His poetry makes us cry, get angry and ponder his perspective. Langston Hughes communicates loud and clear in a masterful authoritative voice. He is the voice of protest, of rallying together for change.

I cried.
I got angry at white people
I got frustrated with Hughes
I wanted to punch a racist in the face and tell them to grow the hell up.

But really, the emotions evoked were fierce.

One of the poems that made me the angriest was Ku Klux

They took me out
to some lonesome place.
They said, "Do you believe
In the great white race?"

I said, "Mister,
to tell you the truth
I'd believe in anything
If you'd just turn me loose."
                             
                           ---What we do when we fear for our lives... The things we would compromise.---

The white man said, "Boy,
Can it be
You're a-standin' there
A-ssassin' me?"

They hit me in the head
And knocked me down.
And then they kicked me
On the ground.

                         ---AHH! I am so mad right now. Get off your high freaking horse. If you feel like
                            you're better than black people because of your race, why must you feel the need
                            to purge them. You must be threatened by the truth...

A klanman said, "Nigger,
Look me in the face--
And tell me you believe in
The great white race."

Clearly, my emotion is obvious.. but how does he evoke this?
He uses rhyme and rhythm, like this kind of event is just part of the pattern- it's normal, accepted.
He uses something as insignificant and non-threanening as a question "Do you believe in the great white race?" and shows the sheer INJUSTICE that the Hughes endured because he didn't answer directly "yes."

So let me get this straight? Because he didn't answer a question with the exact answer you wanted, you violently beat him up...

You mangy dogs. You scum of the earth...

Hughes uses the simplicity of a question juxtaposed with the violent beating to show the injustice, the unwarranted violence against African-Americans. And the insignificant pattern of rhyme to make it seem normal.

Brian Turner wrote a poem "What Every Soldier Should Know" that evokes a similar feeling of anger, of fierce emotion. Like Hughes' poem that communicates a pattern of sad reality, Turner's poem communicates a similar pattern. Both realities dangerous to the ones inside them. Both realities communicated as though they are normal. Both realities communicate sheer injustice.

"Small children will play with you
old men with their talk, women who offer chai--

and any of them
may dance over your body tomorrow."


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