The Negro Artist And The Racial Mountain By Langston Hughes

In "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain," Langston Hughes begins his argument with a quote from a young black man who declares that he "want[s] to be a poet -- not a Negro poet;" Hughes does this to inform the reader of the perceptions of young black artists in the 1920s. Hughes believes that artists like this man think "white is best," which carries into the theme of the essay, that self-love as an African American shapes the basis of your self-identification. Hughes uses this quote because it embodies the central idea of self-love, no matter your skin color. He carries this quote through the piece, by shaping his argument around it. The quote infers that being African American is not good enough, or how Hughes puts it, that "his own