Racism Under the Voices of the Insiders

Tuan Le

ENG 101, Section 0504

Racism under the voices of the insiders

        Racism has always been a controversial and persistent issue around the globe for many years. In the dilemma of not being able to stand up for their own rights and consistently being oppressed by the majority of white people, many colored authors, poets or novelists had to borrow the strength of words and sentences to express their feelings and perception on the existing corruption. Walker and Hughes are not any exception. With the help of literature, both authors have shown us their personal views on as well as their reaction to different issues such as sexism and racism that they have experienced.

        To give an overview of how these pieces of writing look alike, I will go over and briefly summarize the form as well as the content of Alice Walker’s “In the Closet of Soul” and Langston Hughes’s “Theme for English B”. Walker intentionally wrote a letter to a “very intense, beautiful, and genuine” (Walker 402) African –American woman named Mpinga, while “Theme for English B” by Hughes is a poem written from the point of view of a black male student to his white “instructor” after having been given a task to “write a page tonight” (Hughes 289). As stated in the introduction of her letter to Mpinga, Walker wants to give her “an answer worthy of her inquiry” (Walker 402), which is initially just “a copy of a poem” (Walker 402) from Walker to Winnie Mandela. And the “worthy answer” ends up in an 8-page long essay, which not only analyzes the character Mister in her book “The Color Purple” and how she feels about him, but also includes her deep-down feeling towards the fate of black women in American society. She feels for them and expresses her indignation to those she addresses as “slave owners”, even if the “slave owners” are partially black. Hughes is not that enthusiastic. He chooses to proudly reveal his identity as a colored man, “I am twenty two, colored, born in Winston-Salem” (Hughes 289) to distinguish himself from other white folks. But then, he admits he also “like to eat, sleep, …bop, or Bach” (Hughes 290) to show that even he doesn’t have the same color skin with the “instructor”, a well-represented of white people; however, he still share the same hobbies, ideals and thoughts. To sum up in one sentence, he wants to say skin colors or races will not and never determine who he is because he is also an American.

        Their personal thoughts and emotions are well presented in both writings. Being given a free option to choose how to let all his thoughts out, Hughes decides to write this page in a form of a poem; because poem has a stronger sense of touching to the feelings than almost any other genres. He does not criticize the cruelty of the racial discrimination but embrace the differences and share the common things to show white people that he can be one of them, as he says “You are white- yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.” (Hughes 290). Walker’s emotional limitation does not apparently stop at that point. It goes far beyond that. She repeatedly mention many words with strong emphasizing nuance such as “sexist brutality”, “murder”, “slave”… to describe how much pain suffered by black women in general and Celie, from her novel, in particular. I can easily understand the anger and resentment in her voice, especially when she describes her great-great-grandfather, who appears to be “a small, white, naked, pale-eyed, pale-haired, weak limbs. Ineffectual.” (Walker 407). Being black is a disadvantage, but being a black woman is a double disadvantage for them. That’s also the reason why I think Walker’s essay is more emotional and complicated than Hughes’s poem.