An Analysis Of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Empowering the formerly subjugated African American population of the early 20th century, the Harlem Renaissance envisioned an integrated nation that embraced Black culture. Rooting from the influx of African Americans in the prosperous neighborhoods of the Northeast during the Great Migration of the 1930s, the Black community took on the challenge of commencing a new era characterized by a renewed purpose, an improved economic voice, and freshly found political liberty. African Americans began asserting their intellectual identities by traversing the depths of art, music, and literature. The legacies of the African American golden age, however, begin to fade. Hidden beneath the achievements and successes of African American artists, musicians,
and writers, the average Black man still endures the battle of inequities in the historically prejudiced nation. The contemporary African American experience, unfortunately, is degenerating and barely improving since the Harlem Renaissance as uncovered by the prevailing discriminatory preconceptions of Blacks and the economic and geographic isolation they continue to face.
Struggling since the early years of emancipation from slavery, African Americans remain unsuccessful in establishing their positions on the American social platform. Harlem Renaissance writer and poet Claude McKay, in his poem If We Must Die, represents the prevalent desire of living with a significance and not letting “precious blood… [to] be shed in vain.” (McKay) His appeals for a noble death hints of the hindrances that the majoritarian American culture creates that discourage the Black minority of finding a function in their community even today. Switching to a more modern approach, Charles Lane, a 21st century American journalist from The Washington Post supports the assertion that difficulties that African Americans encounter while integrating into the modern American community exist. In his article The Ghettoization of Black Americans Hasn’t Been Reversed he proves that African Americans remain to be “racially and … geographically” isolated (Lane). These social and demographic trends show the lack of Black capacity to institute a community within the already existing major population group. The exposed waning number of social accomplishments of African Americans asserts that the contemporary Black experience has been achieving little progress since the Harlem Renaissance.
The deterioration of the glories of the Black golden age is visible in social segregation that continue to separate African Americans from the rest of the nation.
Charles Lane, in his article, elaborates on “residential segregation” in modern day America that divides communities by both “class and race.” (Lane) This unfair population distribution isolates “black Americans...far more likely than others” not only in the demographic aspect but also in the cultural condition. Contrasting the Harlem Renaissance’s feat of spreading African American culture, current isolation of Black communities prevents the scope of Black cultural influence to widen. Moreover, Beneatha Younger, a character from 20th century playwright Lorraine Hansberry’s piece A Raisin in the Sun further reveals where this cultural confinement seed from. Beneatha’s search for her African identity and rejection of assimilationist ideals serve as a response to the lack of African American societal progress and the realization that “the future [is] right out of [her] hands.” (Hansberry) Affected mainly by social factors, Black spirit that used to uplift the African American community now weakens. Preventing the celebration of the Harlem Renaissance to advance, the unaltered founding history of the nation still haunt the latter-day American
civilization.
The persistence of racial prejudice hinders the development of contemporary African American culture. Take Lena Younger as an example. A character from Hansberry’s play, Lena informs that “houses...put up for colored [people]...seem to cost twice as much as other houses.” (Hansberry) She exposes the degradation of American communities in the face of institutionalized racism. It reveals the impact of racial bias that can control communities, thus even more so constrain the expansion of African American culture. Furthermore, Brent Staples an author and currently an editorial writer for The New York Times provides first hand experience of these derogatory preconceptions in his essay Just Walk On By. His recollections of “negro bitterness that bore down...on other negroes” including himself as well as the general public’s “terror of black males” comes with the preconception that African American males are “more ruthless” compared to all others (Staples). This shows the existing racial discrimination that continue to detach Blacks from the rest of America. Demographically, socially, and culturally, there remains the irony that African Americans still struggle to fit in America.
Looking at the highly diverse culture that defines the nation today, some may argue that the contemporary African American experience is actually developing as Blacks are able to integrate into the American community. It is true that compared to the late 19th century, when racial segregation was legal, there has been substantial improvements in African American living. In his article, Lane discusses how “the average U.S. metropolitan area’s ‘dissimilarity index,’ a widely used measure of segregation between blacks and whites, declined from 78 to 60” during the last 40 years. However, Lane also provides evidence that racial segregation continue to persist in “northern cities such as Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago and Philadelphia”. (Lane) Although the modern non-Black Americans address the presence of African Americans, the associations made with Black people are still mostly negative and degrading. The “various deprivations, in transportation, employment and education” that intertwine with the common preconception of the Black population displays the actuality that the contemporary African American experience is barely improving (Lane). Due to this discrimination, the Black man’s position on the societal platform, since the Harlem Renaissance, hardly changed.
Ultimately, as citizens living in a highly multicultural community, we must be thankful of the cultural diversity that we have available in our nation. As one of the chief influencers of today’s pop culture, we must give credit to African Americans that introduced us to Black artistry. Most importantly, as a more educated generation, we must learn to leave behind the ills of the past, the biases of yesterday. Together, we shall move forward with objectivity, creating greater social equality for tomorrow and reversing the effects of the currently deterioration of the contemporary African American experience.