The Harlem renaissance

The Harlem renaissance

The Harlem renaissance was a thriving period thriving for the African American culture, most specifically in the line of creative arts. It was also one of the most popular and prominent movements in the literary history of the Africans Americans. It was the era between 1918 and 1937. It was a time when there was an embracing of the music, literature, visuals arts, and theatricals of the blacks with the aim of conceptualizing “the negro.” It was time for them to have a different inclination distanced from the white stereotypes that had to great extent affected the link of the black people and their heritage and their relationship to each other. The African Americans were also seeking to cut off the Victorian moral virtues and the middle-class embarrassments about elements of their lives that might reinstate racist beliefs as might be viewed by whites (Baker, 46). The Harlem renaissance was never propelled by a school of thought but by passionate deliberation about the African American concepts. The movement created a platform where African American Literature would develop and had a great impression on later works and consciousness of the blacks globally. Even though the Harlem renaissance was not limited to New York City, Harlem was of immense impact on the cultural awakening of the city and was symbolic of the area. The Harlem renaissance, therefore, cut the discrimination lines that prevailed in the society between the whites and the African Americans, giving the blacks some more traits for liberation.

Before the Harlem Renaissance, the black people not only to be undermined by the whites but also had lost the self-esteem to believe that there were capable of everything. Were it not for the renaissance period, the blacks would already have lost their cultures, arts, theatrics, and also their intelligence. If the discrimination that they were facing from the blacks was not enough to destroy them, then the devaluation that they had over who they were and their race was enough to drive them to extinction (Garvey, 21). Discrimination in the early 20th century was at its peak because the Africans had just started moving into the countries of the whites, mostly as slaves and workers in the farms and industries of the whites. Thus they were inferior people to the whites, the only thing they were in their country for was work and nothing much for the impact of the whites. The whites tried to makes sure that the only thing that they were to induce to the society was their labor and not anything else that was related to their African background. And that is how their cultures were blocked. The whites did not intend for a place where the settlement of the blacks would be dominant. Their goal was that they would forever be slaves in their land.

With the increment of the population of the blacks in the whites countries, they started to advance their interest to more than just offering the labor that they were meant to be there for. With the greatness in numbers, the African Americans’ culture started spreading in the land. They started living, not the lives of the whites but the life that they had at home. They could not for long live a life that was not their own, living a lie had to come to a halt. The culture included African music, theatrics, and writings. The Africans started advancing their music even though the consumption was not as high, mostly because they were singing songs about their goals for freedom. Because their voice was weak to reach the administration, they decided to use the platforms that they had to express their ideologies and how they felt as blacks. The best of arts for utilization was music and literature (James, 8). There were a lot of Africans writers who started using the novelists’ platforms and magazines as a way of expressing their position. It was more like a revolution for the Africans. It had reached a point where they would hold it anymore, and if the discrimination was not going to stop, they would not have a better chance than they had triggered. Discrimination was advancing to levels that had superseded the just being black or being what; it was more of an institutional or systematic element.

One of the approaches that were prevalent in the issue of social inequality was the copy mode. That meant that the majority of people would engage in what is being done by the society at large. Expectations are that a lot of people will engage in whatever their counterparts are doing and less of what they believe is right or wrong. It was a society that was devoted to the cultures found in the society rather than the teachings basically learn from different lines of life. It will take a lot more than an education for an individual to learn the way out of discrimination besides being taught or listening to advocacy. And that is why the Audre Lorde says that it is only from the oppressed that the oppressor would be able to learn a lesson (Olson, 284). Without the intervention of someone who has been on the other flipside of oppression, there is no way that an oppressor will learn that whatever they are doing is wrong. Sadly enough, there are different dimensions of discrimination, meaning that there are people oppressed in one area, and they also extend the hand of oppression to another group. That is forgetting that they are also pulled to a thin corner in one way or the other.

A good example of copied discrimination is when a black American mistreats a fellow black just because they are from different economic classes. The rich, regardless of being white or being black, will mishandle the poor, not caring for the race. It is very devastating that a straight thinking and wealthy black who is still discriminated against mishandles his fellow black. Nature would dictate differently; a person who knows the pinch of such circumstance of being denied equal opportunities should not go ahead and replicate the actions and character. When it comes to women, for a long time, they have not found the sought objective of equality with their male counterparts, and the battle for equality doesn’t even look promising. Even with the hostility faced, the women were still divided across racial lines (St-Jean, 57). The white women, instead of working together in the feminist battle towards a freer world with the black women, they were only drawing disunity lines. The white women, as in the ancient days, still take the black fellows as inferior beings when put to comparison. There is nothing much that a black woman is entitled to. They are discriminated against both on the bases of their gender and secondly because of their race. It cannot get tougher for them, even in their households.

Thus discrimination has been more of an institutional affair; people align with what they think is best for them. The classing of the people is done based on the merits that can be accrued by the individuals in question. It is all about what door being white or being a male can open. It is more likely that on a job vacancy that has a black and white, the latter will earn the job, not on the basis of merit, but based on being white, they are better positioned. Hence it is no longer all about the social lines that have been created and established; the possible advantages to be accrued also matter in a great way. With the factor in line, discrimination seems to be going a great length from where it was and where it is at the moment. For those who have been trying to fight the same battle of discrimination, success has become mean because most of them do it for personal gains rather than the well being of the people. Like for feminists, a very popular group in society today, they are very many, and one would presume that they thus would easily succeed. That is not the case though, the more the feminist groups, the higher the division magnitude. That is because the so-termed “feminists” continue spreading their ideas for individual gains rather than for the benefits of the society.