December 21, 2014
"We come from people who had a lot of pride... We are very proud people."
I will never forget the day when my father said that to that old Mr. Lindner. At the time I really hadn't an idea of what he was saying. All I was thinking to my childhood self was how excited I was to tell grandmama that the moving men came. Took a couple years but grandmama told me about what really happened on that day that changed our lives. I still remember what grandmama been telling me about how father almost gave up the whole house for the money he lost. But even now I can still remember that that day my old man changed. He changed how he raised our family and how he raised me, and even though he ain't here anymore, what he taught to me later on changed how I lived and how I treated the children of my own.
From that day on mama and papa and grandmama and even aunt Bennie changed. They stopped caring so much about the money and the taking and started caring more about the love of the family. Papa raised me to be honest and to have integrity, just like that moving day a long time ago. We stopped worrying about the money and focused on pride, something that's been in this family for seven generations now. My father taught me to be strong and take care of family more than anything. He showed me that money ain't nothin without the people that you love, and to this day I believe it. I even raised my own kids that way, with pride and honesty. And even though being a black kid in a white place made it hard to fit in, hard to show them white people who I was as a person, I wouldn't go back to change any of it. Cause it was people like my dad and me who made the possibility of whites and black being equal.


Thanks mama and papa, grandmama and Bennie. For everything.
-Travis (not so) Younger

While others might say that Langston Hughes utilizes his poetry solely to emphasize blacks' points of views during various time periods, all of his poems-"I,Too," "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," and "The Weary Blues"- tell stories that elucidate the struggle, oppression, and ultimate beauty of blacks and black culture in history. In "I, Too," Hughes narrates as a defiant black man who is determined to have people "see how beautiful" he is. The narrator is determined to witness the end of the ongoing racism and to experience triumph. Like Morta of the fates, he is determined to see the end of a life. But unlike Morta, who cuts the thread of life and determines death, Hughes is determined to "cut" a life and mentality in society that is characterized by segregation."The Weary Blues" is a poem that documents the firsthand experiences of the solemn nature and emotion that a jazz musician expresses. The impact of jazz, unlike the high-volume rock n roll music of Jimi Hendrix, was of sorrow and dismay, leaving black American community with a constant feeling of hopelessness. In "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" Hughes describes himself as one who has experienced the "rivers" of oppression throughout history that causes his soul to grow "deep". The oppression following blacks across history is similar to the fire that follows Jeanette Walls in The Glass Castle; both blacks and Walls want to rid themselves of their troubles. However, unlike Walls' motif of fire, Hughes implies that there has not been a complete end to the oppression of blacks. Although he witnesses "the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to the New Orleans," Hughes repudiates the full understanding and appreciation of African Americans.

Blacks have experienced oppression and struggle throughout history and still do today. With each of his poems, Hughes questions the prevalence of black oppression in today's society as well as in history. He challenges our understanding of beauty of black culture and questions whether racism is a thing of the past or a matter that is ongoing like the infinite essence of outer space.