Misogynoir of the Harlem Renaissance: How Langston Hughes’ Shunning of Black Women and Severe Need for White Approval Sheds All Responsibility on to Black Women Writers, by Christina Woodson, no use of this work permitted without written consent

 Christina Woodson

Professor Gleason

Poetry 

June 1, 2022

Misogynoir of the Harlem Renaissance: How Langston Hughes’ Shunning of Black Women and Severe Need for White Approval Sheds All Responsibility on to Black Women Writers

The Harlem Renaissance is deemed a revolutionary time for art, specifically written forms. It was the turn of the century, and finally, black Americans were getting recognition societally, even though it was seen through a viewing glass of just the art they had to offer. One of the most profound and iconic writers to come was Langston Hughes. Through the revolutionary Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes reached a sort of superstardom, while still facing the struggles presented as an African American man. While black male Americans very evidently suffered, the stories of artists and poets who were black women seem to disappear. This poses the question of the differences that poetry brings to these artists. Through thorough research of Langston Hughe’s Harlem and Audre Lorde’s Litany for Survival and Power, the comparison of how poetry is conveyed and used by these two genders while facing racism as well as black people will be uncovered as misogyny and misogynoir play into these factors and serve as proof that being a man is still powerful, regardless of race.

Langston Hughes's Harlem is notably his most famous poem, with hints of dreams and a pent-up revolution that merely reflects the feelings of people in Harlem, as well as anyone who dreams. Harlem is soaked in metaphors and imageries that equate more to symbolic ideas of what the black male endured in America. Before diving into Harlem solely, readers must understand the similarities between Hughes and his peers. “Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen might be remembered for their remarkable similarities. As ambitious African Americans, both enrolled in Ivy League universities: Hughes in 1921 at Columbia before withdrawing for personal and financial reasons; Cullen in 1925 at Harvard, where he earned a master’s degree. Each was a rising star in the emerging Harlem literary scene; neither was conventionally heterosexual. Their paths often crossed…” (Skansgaard) Though this literary journal is written about the iconography of The Weary Blues it goes to show that the symbolic integrity of Hughe’s work was surpassing of any individual level. Because of this, the poems are far more universal than most think. Hughes is incredibly able to persuade any reader into relating to all of his poems, evoking empathy and becoming a symbol of all of America in a way. Through this, he was able to reach that form of superstardom. His poems were digestible enough for white Americans, and his being a male allowed for a sort of privilege despite being black. In Harlem, this universality is very present. 

“Does it dry up

 like a raisin in the sun?” This line proposes that some dreams that come from something sweet, simply are, but have most of the plump juice of motivation dried out. This was a dream that was simply not sought out by the dreamer and resulted in a sweet tale to give to descendants about why they should always chase their dreams. When readers analyze this quote, it is more common to construct an idea of upper or middle-class people whose dreams were a means of leaving their comfort zone. Perhaps a marriage or pregnancy got in the way of their dreams, but their lives were fulfilling enough to look fondly upon what they missed. The connotation of fruits, the juices, and the fact that raisins are simply still living provides for an idea that the dreams being unfulfilled was okay and fond. The next question that Hughes proposes has a similar use of symbolism and connotation as well. 

“Or fester like a sore—

      And then run?” This imagery of a nasty sore, probably heated and pus-filled brings a sense of pain to readers analyzing the poem. This is a dream that people did not have a choice to abandon but had to. Either from societal pressures or racial disparity which is plausible considering Hughes's ethnic, racial, and geographical background. These feelings are probably more related to the black folk of Harlem. At this time, in historical context, black people were still blatantly facing severe racism that obstructed them from having basic human rights. Including being able to dream of something better. This line is far more pessimistic about how it feels for these dreams to be taken since the connotation also brings up ideas of physical pain and even murder. Since lynchings were disturbingly common at the time, the loss of these dreams could symbolize the loss of someone’s life and how the pain of a dead child or stunted life could hurt people who dreamed for them. Therefore this part of the stanza represents dreams that are a lot darker, and more so how much darker it is that they weren’t reached. With the idea of a sore being the outcome is not reaching this dream, it becomes something representative of a marginalized community and a symbol of what is usually the outcome. He continues, driving a symbolic juxtaposition that serves for the digestible nature and how black men can surpass and use their art as a soothing ointment of pain. “Does it stink like rotten meat?

      Or crust and sugar over—

      like a syrupy sweet?” The power that is Langston Hughes’ poetry is poems so simple they can deceive an audience. Because Hughes had the luxury of being able to tell his story and the story of his community in such a deceivingly sweet way, he was able to reach the superstardom that made his poems and the Harlem renRenaissanceworldwide renowned movement. In this part of the stanza, the juxtaposition serves to make the poem more digestible. This is because when white audiences read and analyze this poem they can construct an idea that there is a chance for people whose dreams have been deferred to not care or to simply brush it off. Mainstream audiences who gave Langston Hughes his power and celebrity, are unaware of the actual dangers and feelings of regular people in Harlem. These dreams that have died at the hands of racism, classism, misogyny, poverty, and so much more stink communities as if it’s rotten meat. Rotten meat in the fridge causes a smell of so putrid and it lasts for weeks and sometimes forever. In the Harlem community, if no one reaches their dreams then there is nothing to look up to. There is no silver lining. But when the poem writes that sometimes it may crust over like a sugary sweet it gives people on the outside looking in an idea that there are silver linings. Because these people on the outside can look up to others, they can complete their dreams because someone sacrificed their own for them. Langston Hughes made his poems digestible because this was his luxury. Unlike the black woman, Langston Hughes, and other black male poets such as the referenced Countee Cullen were able to utilize poetry as something of a creative outlet. While poetry is inherently creative and meant as an outlet, most people of color are not provided that privilege. The dreams that Langston Hughes was writing about were people's livelihoods, opportunities stolen from them, and resources purposely withheld from them. To write about these dreams of other people and make it sound as though some of them can even be OK with it, to delude white audiences into thinking that because one writer was able to come out of the Harlem Renaissance the rest who didn’t reach their dreams is OK, is a case in point example of how poetry as a man despite race is a form of luxury. 

Historically, Langston Hughes faced a life of discrimination and unfortunate circumstances due to his upbringing and race. These facts can never be taken away or obscured as though he did not face them. But at the end of the day, Langston Hughes used his community's overall struggle to reach their dreams, condensed it into a digestible poem to make their oppressors feel better, and ended up becoming a sort of superstar because of this. This is a stark contrast between Langston Hughes and black women artists of the Harlem Renaissance and later generations. A historical example of Langston Hughes's privilege is that when he and his ex-best friend Zora Neale Hurston had a falling out, he was able to shun her from other artists apart of the Harlem Renaissance. She ended up dying unknown, alone, and very far from Harlem. Her poems and the work that she did outside of writing, were inspirational and would have had a very positive influence on the younger generation birthed after the Harlem Renaissance. In acting upon the advance of misogynoir, Hughes could have very well participated in the stunted image of black women and their needed addition to society that continues to this day. In 2015, a literary study dedicated to rewriting and imagining black women through literature. “Identity formation is a critical process shaping the

lives of adolescents and can present distinct challenges for Black adolescent girls who are positioned in society to negotiate ideals of self when presented with false and incomplete images representing Black girlhood. Researchers have found that distorted images of Black femininity derived from history, including the mammy, jezebel, and Sapphire, are still pervasive in contemporary media outlets that are often viewed by adolescent girls. The current qualitative interview study examined literate interpretations of current media representations depicting Black girlhood from eight adolescent girls. Findings show that participants believed that Black girlhood is portrayed as being judged by their hair; is seen as angry, loud, and violent; and is sexualized. Following the interview, the girls used their pens to write against each of these portrayals and also to write about social change. The ways the girls desired to be represented were in opposition to the ways they felt society and media viewed them. Their responses and literary writings suggest that Black adolescent girls need spaces to negotiate depictions of self and identity.” (Muhammad, McArthur) Hughes was able to use misogynoir to further himself in comparison to black women of the Harlem Renaissance, which very likely resulted in the culture we carry to this day that allows for black men to have more creative freedom, while only fighting for themselves. Langston Hughes is a vital part of the Harlem Renaissance but it cannot be ignored that he had a form of male privilege and that the way he wrote is what was able to garner him a form of superstardom. When he wrote for white audiences, which is proof that he did his excellent universal style of writing, he was able to mask just how terrible living in Harlem was. He was able to have a say in women artists and able to ban them from these artistic spaces because he was a man. The suffering that Langston Hughes endured as a human and black man is true and terrible. Despite that, it cannot be ignored that it was a privileged form of art, one that did not have the call for revolution or make him unappealing or scary to audiences.

Some fifty or so years later emerged Audre Lorde, a black, lesbian, revolutionary who formed an influence that was a result of continued misogynoir and the fact that poetry for black women is not the same as poetry for black men. Audre Lorde wrote A Litany for Survival and Power which illustrates that when black women write poems it is usually never for comfort or creative outlet. In A Litany for Survival, Lorde writes about the literal struggle that comes with being a black woman poet, and that unlike Langston Hughes and other black male writers dating back to the Harlem Renaissance, it is not afforded as a luxury. “for those of us who cannot indulge

the passing dreams of choice… so their dreams will not reflect

the death of ours;” Lorde is directly reflecting how writers like Langston Hughes were able to use others' dreams not being met and turn them into their literal dream. Audre Lorde starts with a litany for survival talking about these dreams that are ripped away from mothers and pillars of the community in hopes that children will be able to live out their own. Despite the hope in this idea, it is only hope and not a promise that these babies will reach their dreams. This poem jumps into the idea that when poets like Audre Lorde and other black women poets write, it is not for themselves but rather for their children and the next generations to come. When looking at the historical context, noting that Audre Lorde did not start writing until long after the Harlem Renaissance, the evidence that black misogyny was prevalent and still has an effect on black women to this day is plain and simple. With only a few modernist black women writers, who have studied how forgotten and misrepresented they are, Lorde did not have much to look to, though she is self-sacrificing for the next generations as best as she can. For example, “Jessie Fauset and Paulette Nadal have been described as ‘midwives’ of the Harlem Renaissance and Negritude movements respectively, even though they were racial activists and prolific writers in a variety of

genres themselves. Focusing on the tropes of dislocation, (mis)translation, and (mis)representation as they interact with the imagination of Paris between the wars, the author sees the work of both African-American and Francophone black women writers as central to the creation of Afromodernisms and twentieth-century feminisms.” (Garcia) This is a prime study about black writers, specifically women, during the Harlem Renaissance who could’ve been of some form of influence but was subjected to the same misogyny that Zora Neale Hurston and many other black women were. This resulted in the need for black women in the seventies to feel that poetry is not a luxury and that it is meant for the survival of black women and the work they do for their communities, as they are constantly at risk of being forgotten. This poem is not explicitly about motherhood only, yet the theme of motherhood is present. It reflects how black women are more often than not seen as a form of Mammy figure which was present in the article that was written about how black women and girls see themselves in 2015, proving that poetry is used as a tool of survival and restructuring for black women. Not only does she excellently persuade this in A Litany for Survival, but she does so as well in Power. 

‘“They convinced me” meaning

they had dragged her 4'10'' black Woman's frame

over the hot coals

of four centuries of white male approval

until she let go.

the first real power she ever had

and lined her womb with cement

to make a graveyard for our children.”’ (Lorde) The imagery that comes with the black woman’s height is a direct juxtaposition against the appearance that most people associate with black women. She is delicate, small, and seemingly innocent because she can decipher between moral good and bad. It is unfair to her, that she must agree with these white men or face deliberate hours of scrutiny and upheaval. In writing about this black woman Audre Lorde once again presents the motherly figure that black women posed to their communities. This woman saw an unprecedented murder against a young black child and because it could have been her son or her brother or her father or her boyfriend, she knew that she should speak up for what was wrong. Because poetry for black women is not a luxury, Audre Lorde makes a specific point to write about real-life cases of other black individuals. Though black, male writers like Langston Hughes keep their writings digestible and acceptable for white audiences, Audre Lorde makes it a point to not allow for any fluff or soft rhetoric. When black women write about the injustices in their communities and societies, they cannot afford to make it as beautiful and as simple as Langston Hughes once did. They write because if they do not, no one will check for these people. The role of being a writer for black women has always been the same role that society puts on them in any form of context: to be the caretaker, to be the speaker, to be the writer, to be the only one who checks in for everyone. Yet no one checks for them allowing them to go unnoticed and allowing them to go on without the same superstardom that can be seen in black male writers as early as the Harlem Renaissance.

 With the research produced it is clear that both male and women writers of the black race are harmfully given fewer opportunities. But since misogyny outweighs racism, black male and female writers face these issues disproportionately and can be compared as they have only one thing in common. Being black. When examining the writings of Langston Hughes versus the writings of Audre Lorde it becomes clear that one can write for the enjoyment of doing so, which results in the acceptance of white counterparts while the other does so in hopes of basic human rights. Langston Hughes's Harlem was written and enjoyed by white audiences who felt that they were having a sort of zoo-like experience with the black community and their art. During the Harlem Renaissance, there was a spike in domestic violence amongst black women that resulted in many deaths with very little accountability or answers. Women were stabbed to death over jealousy, money, or for little to no reason at all. Langston Hughes does not reflect the severity of losing dreams in his Harlem community. Some of these dreams lost were mothers who hoped their daughters would find better husbands than they ever did and be happier as well. Due to senseless acts of domestic violence, these dreams were robbed by many women. Some of these dreams were mothers who had hoped their children would live long and experience a better childhood than they ever did. These dreams were around when these children were lynched. Audre Lorde had very few black women writers during the Harlem Renaissance to look up to take it up on herself about fifty years later to ensure that people understood these problems was still here. She understood that being a poet was not a game or mirror. Nor was it a creative outlet but rather a tool to seek out justice and human rights. In analyzing how these two writers differentiated from each other, readers can understand that being a black woman is not rewarded with superstardom or acceptance from white peers ever. This is because of the image that the media puts upon these black women, they are supposed to be motherly, angry, big, and poetic. Though black men face the same racism, some of it can be marked off as they are given chances and opportunities because of being a man. And researching Langston Hughes, the domestic violence that surrounded him and the community of Harlem, and the vicious acts he performed against Zora Neale Hurston and other black artists, it is clear to see that a lot of it wasn’t reprimanded since he was a man. Audre Lorde and other black women to this day who choose to write understand that they do not have the luxury of making poetry in the middle of France. Their poetry is made with reason, a reason far beyond themselves. Unlike Langston Hughes who made his poetry digestible and easy for people to understand the horrors of being a black American, black women like Audre Lorde to this day do not have that. And their fight remains until they and every other black woman can. “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” (Audre Lorde)

Annotated Bibliography 

Skansgaard, Michael. “The Virtuosity of Langston Hughes: Persona, Rhetoric, and Iconography in The Weary Blues.” Modern Language Quarterly: A Journal of Literary History, vol. 81, no. 1, Mar. 2020, pp. 65–94. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mlf&AN=202017130731&site=ehost-live&scope=site. 

This essay argues the perception of Hughe’s poems can be seen as more than just a racial community poem and rather a universal one. I will be using this in my argument of how women are disproportionately harmed and how their writings can not be spread around the same as black men. I used this to highlight how Hughes’ style of writing is comparable to other black men, deducing they write in an ‘easy’ style that is meant for oppressors to read with no backlash.

Knadler, Stephen. “Domestic Violence in the Harlem Renaissance: Remaking the Record from Nella Larsen’s Passing to Toni Morrison’s Jazz.” African American Review, vol. 38, no. 1, 2004, pp. 99–118. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.2307/1512234. 

This is an article about the review of Toni Morrison’s novel Jazz and I will be using it to utilize my argument of the juxtaposition between a black man's experience, influenced by the Harlem Renaissance, and a woman.

Garcia, Claire Oberon. “Black Women Writers, Modernism, and Paris.” International Journal of Francophone Studies, vol. 14, no. 1–2, May 2011, pp. 27–42. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.libproxy.elac.edu/10.1386/ijfs.14.1-2.27_1

I will be using this article to reference the universality of black women writers during the Harlem Renaissance. It highlights how black writers had to cover a multitude of styles and issues to be even slightly recognized, still resulting in no fame at the level of any black writer.

Muhammad, Gholnecsar E., and Sherell A. McArthur. “‘Styled by Their Perceptions’: Black Adolescent Girls Interpret Representations of Black Females in Popular Culture.” Multicultural Perspectives, vol. 17, no. 3, Jan. 2015, pp. 133–40. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.libproxy.elac.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1071915&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

I will be using this article to relate the societal, communal, and cultural ideas that were found in the Harlem Renaissance and still occur now. I will be using this article to reference the universality of black women writers during the Harlem Renaissance. It highlights how acts like Langston Hughes shunning black women have resulted in societal notions of misogynoir and unfair representation in media.