Defining the New Negro

Defining the New Negro requires one to understand the different social levels of the black community. The overall sentiment of the New Negro is a person who elevates racial pride in the dialogue of the community, as well as disrupts the racial hierarchy that enforces white hegemony. Alain Locke defines the New Negro as the artist, the person who observes what is happening in black communities and reflects on the changes in consciousness. Davarian Baldwin, on the other hand, defines the New Negro as the non-elite who undermines the white hegemony on the ground level. Although both scholars agree that the New Negro interrupts the racial hierarchy, they differ the New Negro's locality, occupation, and the role in making waves in the ocean of hegemony.

Davarian Baldwin describes the New Negro as a person who uses the "mass consumer marketplace as a crucial site of intellectual life" (Baldwin, 5). Baldwin considers Chicago as the haven for the New Negro, where black entrepreneurship thrives and strides towards racial uplift are derived. Chicago is a blossoming economic powerhouse, that fostered motivation for blacks to begin a collective movement towards excellency through the competitive racial narrative. The New Negro becomes inspired by the possibilities of success, and create an entrepreneurial culture in Chicago, where black businesses sprung up and provided black communities with commerce and economic power. New Negroes built self-sustaining businesses in Chicago, where the disposable incomes of other black people were invested in the separate black economy. "The overt desire for autonomous black cultural production through economic control, and specifically though consumer strategies, was arguably the most salient aspect of Chicago's New Negro consciousness" (7). Baldwin's emphasis on the entrepreneurial impact of the New Negro moves towards the idea of being autonomous from the rest of society, and use the marketplace as the means to get there. All types of people in the metropolis known as Chicago, varying from entrepreneurs to war veterans to laborers felt connected to the "symbiotic relationship between black producers and black consumers" (7).

Alain Locke's understanding of the New Negro is reactionary to Davarian Baldwin's. The works of art produced by Locke's New Negroes in Harlem responded to the prior sentiment that blacks were inferior to whites. The New Negro, according to Locke, created a literature, drama, and art for self determination, and freed themselves through the works they created. Instead of starting businesses like Baldwin's New Negroes in Chicago, the New Negroes in Harlem expressed the transformations and changes in the black spirit through artistic compositions. Locke emphasizes the intellectual competency of the artist, and their involvement in the Harlem Renaissance, which uplifted the New Negro in the artistic revolution. The artists were considered elite, and did not include the same kind of working people in Chicago; however, they reflected the same general ideology as their counterparts.

Through the artistic contributions of the New Negro in Harlem, black people could feel like they were elevating their place in society, and could indulge in the self respect and pride they always deserved. In Chicago, black people could engage in the same kind of self love through entrepreneurism and the independence they gain through making a separate, black marketplace. Although the class level and location differs between Locke and Baldwin's New Negroes, the core of their movement and transformation was consistent. Both worked towards creating a new and improved space for blacks, to feel self worth in a world that was constantly teaching them otherwise.

Our Land

"Our Land" by Langston Hughes.

We should have a land of sun,

Of gorgeous sun,

And a land of fragrant water

Where the twilight is a soft bandanna handkerchief

Of rose and gold,

And not this land

Where life is cold.

We should have a land of trees,

Of tall thick trees,

Bowed down with chattering parrots

Brilliant as the day

And not this land where the birds are gray.

Ah, we should have a land of joy,

Of love and joy and wine and song,

And not this land where joy is wrong.

Langston Hughes' poem, "Our Land," (The New Negro, 144) creates an image of a promise land/paradise that the New Negro deserves to live in. Throughout Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns, the experience of the Great Migration is understood to be a journey to a safe haven for blacks in the South. Although in Wilkerson's book, the North is not described in the same terms that Hughes uses, I feel that the sentiment was quite similar.

Wilkerson describes the Great Migration as a relocation of blacks who yearned to break free from the Southern caste system and Jim Crow laws (Wilkerson, 10). George Swanson Starling moved to New York, hoping for a freer life, "to be able to live as a man and express [him]self in a manly way without the fear of getting lynched at night" (Wilkerson, 229). In Hughes' poem, he uses negative phrases to show what "our land" will not consist of, for example, "And not this land/ Where life is cold." I think that Hughes is referencing to the cold, harsh treatment of blacks in the South. The use of the word "cold" makes me think of having fearful shivers down my spine, and the mere thought of being lynched stirs the physical reaction of shivering. The land where life is cold is what blacks want to escape through migrating, and I think that Hughes successfully eluded to the bleak life conditions of the South.

Ida Mae Brandon Gladney moved to Chicago, and at first glance she thought the city "looked like Heaven" (Wilkerson, 226). Although Gladney did not go into detail about what Heaven was to her, I think that excitement and beauty that Hughes described could convey the paradisal understanding of what her haven envelops. These descriptions of the Northern cities may not appear to bring Hughes' poem to life, however the perspective that they have entered a safe space that they deserve coincides with the Hughes' promise land.

I feel like this post may seem far fetched, because I did not deconstruct the poem line by line, however in my opinion, Hughes described a fantasy that migrants had about the world beyond the South. When reading "Our Land," all I could think about was how migrants dreamed of the North fulfilling all of their hopes and wishes, saving them from the horrendous conditions of the South. Hughes composed an image of fantasy, which can serve as a means of healing and further encourage blacks to find a place that makes them feel like they deserve and belong to be there. Through that positive motivation to find "our land," Hughes creates a dialogue among blacks to migrate to a place that they can feel is their own.

What Black Studies courses have you taken and how has your perspective evolved until now?

The first Black Studies class I took was during the Fall of my freshman year. My Orientation Staff member suggested taking George Lipsitz's BL ST 1 because it covered a handful of GE's and because she admired him a great deal. To my surprise, she was right. He was an amazing professor, and I enjoyed the class more so than any other I was taking at the time. By the end of the quarter, I found myself actually keeping up with the reading and visiting Professor Lipsitz's office hours. I crashed his BL ST 6 course the next quarter, and took it with two friends from the dorms. My friends mostly joked about the catch phrases he used throughout the class, like the "long fetch of history" and "crossroads of epistemology," while I ate up every word he said. I wanted to keep taking Black Studies courses, so for Spring I took BL ST 45 with Professor Stewart. The class covered a broad reach of Black cultural expression through music, art, and dance, but similar to Professor Lipsitz's course, it created a bridge between culture and history.

My sophomore year I took BL ST 38B to cover my Literature GE and BL ST 153, because I heard rave reviews on the course. I still wasn't sure if I wanted to commit to being a double major, because at the time I was about halfway completed with my Art History major, yet I realized I was racking up BL ST courses, so it only made sense to declare. The fall quarter of my junior year, I took BL ST 169CR with Professor Gaye Johnson. At first, I was apprehensive about the course because the title alone described the class as primarily history. Professor Johnson exceeded my expectations by including "Beloved" by Toni Morrison, and making the first paper assignment to connect historical accounts to Jacob Lawrence paintings.

The following quarter I took three BL ST courses, BL ST 4, 106 and 193GG. I worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up with all of the reading, because as we all know, the average BL ST course has at least 5 books to complete. The fear of Professor Banks calling me out in class for not reading kept my nose in all of the BL ST 106 books, and the academic study of race and the systemic presence of racism fascinated me. Professor Banks is responsible for how I found my voice in college courses. Before her class, I hardly ever spoke up in class, but because she required it, I made a huge effort in putting myself out there during class. BL ST 193GG served as my culture fix, where I learned about musical compositions by black people. Spring quarter, I took the Sociology of the Black Experience with Professor McAuley, which was great because I felt like I was learning about black people's lives on a more personal level. Much of what we talked about was the content that can't be found in textbooks, rather the differences within the black community concerning class levels.

So far during my senior year, I've taken BL ST 118, 124, and 7. All of which were very different. BL ST 118 with Professor Johnson contextualized the black experience with the brown experience. Professor Lipsitz's BL ST 124 really pulled at my heart strings, through its content about housing, inheritance and wealth, and the huge discrepancies in the housing market in the US. BL ST 7 with Professor McAuley gave me a global, diasporic view of the black experience. Taking a lower division course as a senior made me appreciate the dialogue of my underclassmen peers and the passion that graduate student TA's have for the course.

Black Studies courses have made me much more sensitive to issues concerning race. I've learned about how closely different races overlap in sentiments and treatment in the US. Prior to taking Black Studies courses, I hated taking history classes where I had to memorize dates and wars. Black Studies appealed so much to me because it fused together the moments in history with the creative expressions of the people who were experiencing great changes. Coming from an Art History background, it's obvious that I prefer to learn about culture through the visual, but Black Studies offered literature and music as well. The aesthetics of a period were conveyed through the songs, poems, and paintings produced.

Overall, I've taken a wide variety of courses in the Black Studies Department. Through completing the major, I've been peppered with questions as to why I chose this major, because to be frank, it's pretty surprising to see a Japanese American Black Studies major. The first time someone asked, I really couldn't think of an answer beyond the fact that I like the professors and courses more so than any others I've taken. As I reflected more deeply, I realized that the Black Studies department offers a very contemporary survey of American history. In almost every course, I've learned about events in the 20th century, which cannot be said in every English course or Art History course. Beyond the history, I learned about the culture of people, and their take on the events around them.