Race+in+America

RACE IN AMERICA

//**Mother To Son by Langston Hughes**//

//Well, son, I'll tell you: // //Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. // //It's had tacks in it, // //And splinters, // //And boards torn up, // //And places with no carpet on the floor -- // //Bare. // //But all the time // //I'se been a-climbin' on, // //And reachin' landin's, // //And turnin' corners, // //And sometimes goin' in the dark // //Where there ain't been no light. // //So boy, don't you turn back. // //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Don't you set down on the steps // //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">'Cause you finds it's kinder hard. // //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Don't you fall now -- // //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">For I'se still goin', honey, // //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">I'se still climbin', // //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">And life for me ain't been no crystal stair // media type="youtube" key="SQU4torUz-Q" width="425" height="350" align="left"<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 9px; line-height: 13px;"> **I was born by the river in a little tent** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;"> **Oh and just like the river I've been running ever since**  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;"> **It's been a long, a long time coming**  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;"> **But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;"> **It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;"> **Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky**  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;"> **It's been a long, a long time coming**  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;"> **But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;"> **I go to the movie and I go downtown** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;"> **Somebody keep telling me don't hang around**  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;"> **It's been a long, a long time coming**  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;"> **But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;"> **Then I go to my brother** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;"> **And I say brother help me please**  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;"> **But he winds up knocking me**  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;"> **Back down on my knees**  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;"> **Ohhhhhhhhh.....** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;">**There been times that I thought I couldn't last for long** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;">**But now I think I'm able to carry on**  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;">**It's been a long, a long time coming**  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 70%;">**But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will**

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Once riding in Old Baltimore <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">I saw a Baltimorean  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Keep looking straight at me. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Now I was eight and very small, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">And he was no whit bigger,  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">And so I smiled, but he poker out  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">His tongue, and called me, "Nigger." <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">I saw the whole of Baltimore <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">From May until December;  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Of all the things that happened there  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">That's all that I remember. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">-Countee Cullen

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">"One ever feels his two-ness,---an American, a Negro; <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">torn asunder ."-W.E.B. Du Bois <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">The "<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">I AM A MAN! " slogan represents a demand forrecognition and respect of black manhood as well as black humanity. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">"The moderns then, after they have abolished slavery, have three prejudices to contend against, which are less easy to attack and far less easy to conquer than the mere fact of servitude: <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">the prejudice of the master, the prejudice of the race, and the prejudice of color ." <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">-From Alexis de Tocqueville's //Democracy in America// media type="youtube" key="zrp-v2tHaDo" width="425" height="350"

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Reflection on Race in America <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">Return to Home Page