Imagine living where society is against you, and everyone is quick to make to make judgements about you because of your appearance. This is what Claude McKay lived through, and it led him to write “America.” “America” was first released in the Liberator, a newspaper supporting abolition that was founded in the 1930s. The poem was released in 1921, when segregation was common and years after The Birth of a Nation was released. In Claude McKay’s “America”, the audience can see how McKay has experienced racism through his life, how the American culture has a negative view of race, and how society is going to be slow to change. Claude McKay reflects on the racism he has experienced in his life in ¨America.¨ McKay was born in Jamaica, where he first found an interest in literature and writing. He moved to the United States to attend college and further his studies of literature and writing. When he first arrived in Charleston, he experienced racism …show more content…
In ¨America,” he writes ¨Giving me strength to erect against her hate, her bigness sweeps me like a flood,¨(lines 6-7). He shows how it is the entire culture of the country that is against African-Americans by labeling the country as “her.” The whole country is what “sweeps [McKay] like a flood,” constantly persecuted him, and shows constant hate. During this time the extremely racist film, The Birth of a Nation, was released. This film fueled the KKK, and it is correlated with its peak in involvement. With a larger amount of people in the KKK, violence toward the black community was now higher than ever. In the south, hate crimes were common and African-Americans received little rights. This was due to the introduction of Jim Crow laws. These laws restricted the rights of African-Americans, which were just received during the reconstruction period after the Civil War. The right to vote was now limited, and segregation was normal anywhere you
Following the victory of the North over the South in the civil war, Black Americans were given independence. This led to court rulings such as the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendment, which granted all citizens equality before the law and stated that, the ‘right to vote should not be denied ... on account of race’. However, in practice these Amendments were not upheld, there were no measures in place to implement these rulings and no prevention of the ill treatment of Black Americans. Due to these new rulings, De Facto segregation increased especially with the establishment of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Also, in the South although the 15th Amendment gave everyone the right to vote, Jim Crow laws were put in place to deliberately prevent Black Americans from voting. Black Americans had differing views on how to deal with their situation, while some felt it was best to accept the status quo, others wanted to fight for equal rights but disagreed on whether they should integrate with whites or remain separate.
First off there was the Ku Klux Klan better known as the KKK. This was a group of people who wore robes and masks. They pretended to be the ghosts of confederate soldiers. These people were scared of changes and the rising rights of African Americans. This was also in the north not just the south. Poverty was a big thing after reconstruction. It was a problem before reconstruction but it got bigger after. Poverty was a global issue in the south where a lot of white southerners had lost their land. This caused them to be trapped in a little poverty cycle. African Americans had little job
The social conditions throughout the era were extremely poor. Legal discrimination was around and African Americans were denied democratic rights and freedoms. The southern states would pass strict laws to normalize interactions between white people and African Americans. For example, Jim Crow signs were placed above regularly visited places by everyone, such as water fountains, public facilities, door entrances and exits, etc. Even the most basic rights such as drinking from a water fountain was taken away from African Americans. They would also have separate buildings for African
Racism is an ugly word that churns up strong emotions whenever it is mentioned. Shocking images of lynchings, church bombings and race riots creep into the mind, and cause an almost physical reaction of repulsion and disgust. History books and old television clips do a good job of telling the story of racial hatred in America, but not what it actually felt like to be an African American during those times. James Baldwin, a noted African American author from New York in the 1950s and 1960s, knew what it was like to experience years of unrelenting, dehumanizing racial injustice. In his essay, “Notes of a Native Son,” Baldwin uses his literary skills to tell about his family’s painful history under racism and also to analyze the effects of racial hatred on society – hatred that he compares to a disease of the human spirit.
“America” by Claude McKay is a poem dealing with McKay’s thoughts as he processes through his inner turmoil as he faces the reality of being rejected from a country that he loves. As Claude unveils his feelings to the reader, a creative description of America is presented. The poem deals with love and loyalty and the vicious rejection when you aren’t accepted in a society’s culture. In the short poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus showcases and contrasts the ancient Greek statue Helios and the Statue of liberty. Lazarus lets the reader compare the ancient Colossus of Rhodes, representing traditional masculinity in contrast with the New Colossus a feminine symbol of unity and refuge for those in need. Both poems are social commentaries
He is very disapproving and wants to persuade the African Americans to make a move. Claude McKay was a prominent figure during the Harlem Renaissance, so this would make it easier for him to persuade the African Americans. McKay believed that the treatment the African Americans were undergoing was utterly humiliating, and it was up to him to start a revolution. He also believed that African Americans deserved honor and respect, and this meant they should do anything to achieve their honor. Claude says, “The monsters he and his readers resist will be obliged to honor them, even though they are dead,” which suggests that McKay knew his poems would one day make a difference in the world even if it was after he died (Poetry for Students). Throughout the entire poem, McKay is encouraging his readers to make a difference and begin fighting back against the white Americans. The poem serves as a battle cry for the African Americans, so they could understand the harsh treatment they were putting up with and make a difference (Griffin). Claude McKay insisted, “Men should not be like penned-up animals that submit to their fate” (Poetry for Students). This shows that McKay thought a revolution was vital to saving the African American race. He did not believe the African Americans should put up with this unfair treatment and submit to this awful faith.
Since African American were kept out of society for more than 200 years, it was hard for whites to accepted blacks as equal people. Southern states passed the Black Codes, which restricted African Americans freedom. The point of the codes was to reduce influence of free blacks which were granted some rights during the Presidential Reconstruction, to prevent them from voting, bearing arms, be together to worship and learning to read and write. They also imposed restrictions on black citizenship to be able to still control labor of blacks. Another factor which made it harder for freed slaves to enter the society was the Ku Klux Klan organization, which can be described as “Original American Terrorist Organizations”. Most white’s southern viewed literacy, political equality, or any advancement for blacks as a loss to whites. (3) Terrorist groups like the Klan, the Knights of the White Camelia, the Red Shirts, and several others formed during Reconstruction to maintain the preexisting social order of white supremacy in the South. Black Americans had to suffer a lot, but still later on they
The poem America by Claude McKay is on its surface a poem combining what America should be and what this country stands for, with what it actually is, and the attitude it projects amongst the people. Mckay uses the form of poetry to express how he, as a Jamaican immigrant, feels about America. He characterizes the bittersweet relationship between striving for the American dream, and being denied that dream due to racism. While the America we are meant to see is a beautiful land of opportunity, McKay see’s as an ugly, flawed, system that crushes the hopes and dreams of the African-American people.
Claude McKay was an important figure during the 1920's in the Harlem Rennaisance. Primarily a poet, McKay used the point of view of the outsider as a prevalent theme in his works. This is best observed in such poems as "Outcast," "America," and "The White House." In these poems, McKay portrays the African-American as the outsiderof western society and its politics and laws and at times, the very land that he is native to.
During this time many things were done to help free blacks in the South. The thirteenth amendment prohibited slavery. The Freedmen’s Bureau was created to assist blacks with things such as education and finding homes. The Homestead Act which gave blacks preferential treatment to get public land in the south. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 defined what civil rights were entitled to citizens. The fourteenth amendment which prohibited states from violating the rights of their citizens. The fifteenth amendment which guaranteed every male citizen the right to vote regardless of race. Although the government did all these things to help the black man, it was still tough living in this era. The Ku Klux Klan were at the height of their power. If was hard for blacks to farm because they could not get supplies on credit. There were not many opportunities for free blacks other than work for very small wages on a white persons farm or move to the city and work in a factory. This is what led to the migration of blacks from the farms to the cities and from south to north.
During the Harlem Renaissance, both Claude McKay and Langston Hughes developed an analysis of their time period through poetry. Each writer has a different poem but allude to the same theme. The White House by Claude McKay and I, Too, Sing, America by Langston Hughes makes a relevant comparison to the racial inequality during the 1900s. Both make a point about how White America has withheld equal rights from Blacks or Black America, making it hard for them to survive. More specifically, The White House speaks about the type of oppression being experienced during racial segregation and trying to triumph over it while I, Too, Sing, America speak about what created their oppression and envisioning change in the future.
The White House, white as snow, permitted certain African Americans to be allowed in and the rest still free to not be free. Salvation was as gracious as a flock of doves on a beautiful day. McKay said basically the way they were fighting wasn’t strong enough and that they needed to dig deeper inside themselves to succeed. He thought to himself that segregation
In his poem, “America,” McKay personifies the United States as a woman that feeds him the painful “bread of bitterness,” and extracts the pain he endures by the country's “Tiger tooth in his throat” (McKay 2147). He illustrates that the racism that the country gives him the pain that makes him very dependent on the current ways that the nation is treating him. However, the pain that he endures is drained by the love that he has developed for this country. In "Democracy", Hughes states that “democracy will
Claude however gives a more detailed account and a generalized analysis of race in the US. His book gives an extra ordinary analysis in prose and it is intriguing how he looks at the theme of race. Unlike Alice Walker who uses a third party, Claude Mckay uses his own experiences working in the US and he gives his strong opinion on policies and politics. In his book he vividly describes a big black girl who he describes to be of high feature and explains how blacks were barred from high profile business premises. He also refers to whites as aliens and it is clear that there is bad blood between the whites and the African
Both authors took a leap by publishing works that criticized their oppressors, a leap that put them each in harm’s way. Each poet was able to inspire and educate in their own way, using their own personal touches; Hughes, working to inform his people and unite them against a common enemy through passionate prose, and McKay, working to ignite the passions of his audience in order to compel them to take a forceful stand. The importance of both perspectives operating in unison cannot be understated. A broader set of perspectives and beliefs about the same issue is effective in inspiring a broader, larger, and more diverse group of readers. The sad image that Hughes creates was most likely effective in reaching even the white Americans who already enjoyed their full freedom, by opening the eyes of whites and other unoppressed races to the plights of early African-Americans. In contrast, McKay’s poem was most likely more effective in rallying African-Americans specifically. The advantage of these (though not greatly) differing messages was immense, and underlines the importance of differing viewpoints, and also inspired different groups of people, in order to bring about a more rapid, and more universally agreed upon change. Against a tyrannical force such as a racist majority, these two viewpoints