A Comparison Of Discrimination In The Negro Speaks Of Rivers By Langston Hughes

“ I swear to the Lord, I still can’t see Why Democracy means Everyone but me “(Hughes). Langston Hughes used his writings to express his opinion of races that seemed to be elusive with the United States other than having equality. The time when Langston Hughes was born people were fighting for equality all throughout the United States. Segregation laws and laws against equality were affecting him and the people that were around him. The only way Hughes could express himself and make people understand was through poetry, books, and songs. He wrote eight books, 20 plays ,16 volumes of poetry, three short story collections, and 32 songs. African American poet, songwriter, and novelist James Mercer Langston Hughes utilized his life experiences
In the poem “ The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Langston Hughes writes “I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young/I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep./I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it” (“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” 5-7). In those lines Hughes was saying why would people discriminate against him and the black race if the first people were ever created were black and from Africa. So therefore, he is showing the power to fight against racism and discrimination. This was an important factor of Langston’s career because most of his writings and works were fighting to end discrimination between races and bring equality to everyone. Hughes compares blacks to the rivers because he is saying that their culture and history is strong, deep, and flows just how a river would do. Hughes is saying that blacks around the world are strong and they are what is basically holding all of the countries, including the United States together. The strength of the black culture had an impact on life and America, it gave life and America a diverse culture. Hughes’s and the black culture runs deep like the rivers and it flows throughout history and the world. Hughes’s culture and life played a major role in black rights and the diversity of
More specifically, he is asking all black individuals and other Americans that are discriminated against to follow and pursue their ambitions, no matter if it fails or if it’s overlooked by the superior people of the United States. The ambitions he is referring to is being successful and having equality. Without equality, black individuals and other races would still be discriminated against today. Subsequently, this poem can also apply to any other American that is looking to pursue in something in life. In the poem “ Harlem,” Hughes also used his expression of what an ambition would do if it’s not pursued, he states “Maybe it just sags/like a heavy load./Or does it explode?” ( “Harlem” 9-11). Hughes is explaining that an ambition that is deferred will just stay and drag on with you throughout your life or that it will explode and tear you apart. He’s expressing that if Americans did not follow and believe in themselves and their ambitions, then America would not be a country and it would not strive and succeed. Langston Hughes was trying to show that the black communities, individuals, and the rest of America that the only way for the ambitions of America to occur was to change America’s paths of discrimination and racism. America was founded on the