Racism In Alain Locke's Nigger Heaven
Harlem nurtured the New Negro during the time that he began his evolution from the Old Negro. It is evident that many of the factors that make up the African American of today are the the result of the many experiences that took place in Harlem. In some cases there are also many interactions that do not happen as frequently as others. For example, in the novel Nigger Heaven, one of the main characters experiences and discusses one of the major issues that still took place in the 1920’s, racism. In some cases one can see a spike in current race relations as compared to a time period between the Harlem Renaissance and today. This includes both positive and negative changes. The negatives pertaining to the recent rise in police brutality, and the positives
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including the lack of aggression in everyday interaction between races.
Additionally, one can also see the shift in the effects of family interaction of the Negro from one time period to the next. During the time of the Harlem Renaissance, the large majority of the writers that found themselves overseas would often write about their yearning to return to Harlem (Bremer 49). The majority of the influential writers spent so much of their time in Paris that Alain Locke coined the term “Transplanted Harlem” for it. Therefore it must be evident that the change in both the social and written cultures, in regards to the change in family interaction, art, and literary styles between the two, of the New Negro in comparison to the African American of today is due to the effects of the Harlem Renaissance.
One of the major differences between the New Negro and the African American is the viewpoint on the culture. The aspects of the culture that is being focused on is the literary, and the fine arts. “In Harlem Renaissance literature,
African America's capital city is organic, not mechanical. It is fleshy-and embodied in lively colors, tastes, and sounds. This basic organicism is the first noteworthy strength of Harlem as home” ( Bremer 49). This was set during the 1920’s where Harlem culture was viewed as organic and lifelike. This was due to the fact that the Great Migration brought a large portion of the Southern Negros to the North. This motion brought some southern tendencies such as the attention to agriculture and other service based means of work. The problem with those tendencies in Harlem was their lack of use. Although the literary works of Harlem appeared to be organic, the overall lifestyle of Harlem was in fact mechanical. However, Harlem was a place of beautiful music and art works. Despite this, the organic lifestyle that the Southern culture was for could not be continued on the same scale in Harlem. On the other hand, Harlem today is drastically different than the Harlem of the Renaissance. Similarly to the rest of the United States, Harlem is currently undergoing gentrification. There are more non-black people moving into to Harlem than black people. The effect of the gentrification on the literature of Harlem could be minimal, but on the extreme end one could see the burial of many of the minor authors of the Harlem Renaissance. The loss of these authors is the type of factor is one that allows for gaps in one’s culture, in this case the connecting details that are brought by other authors than Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, and many others.
In addition to these authors and their literary works, other factors such as family and interracial interaction have a large effect on the culture of Harlem, the New Negro, and the African American.The streets of Harlem were not happy, but that unhappiness was one of the many factors that allowed the New Negro to develop in the way that he had. In Harlem, the “it takes a village” mentality was evident. Meaning that during the time the children were not cared for by their parents alone, instead the children were monitored by the neighborhood that they lived in. Due to the size of the area of Harlem the parents knew each other more which made them more inclined to notify each other of problems that arose with their children. This still holds true today with the African American, but it is taken less and less seriously. The change in times between the 20’s and the 2000’s has allowed for children to grow based on the technology around them. The culture of going outside for person to person interaction has left the African American, and has been replaced with the love of technology.
Oddly enough some say that this replacement is due to change of music that the African American listen to. “Even death confirms the generativity of life, as blues spawn the laughter of jazz and street life spills into the cabarets in Langston Hughes's first book of poems, The Weary Blues (1925) (Bremer 51).” From the Jazz came different genres such as hip hop and rap, and in the same way that music affected the children of the Harlem Renaissance it has done so with the children of the present day. The young African Americans are no longer concerned with the themes of Jazz. On the contrary, the young African Americans of the present day are more concerned with different styles of cars and the best ways to attract different varieties of the opposite sex.
In addition to the other social changes, the infatuation of non-interracial people is being replaced with the somewhat obsession of interracial people. For example in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand the main character is of Danish American and African American blood (Bremer 51). With this mix the character was unable to fully express herself in Harlem. This is similar to the feelings of the other interracial people in Harlem. However, Helms writes, “The person must maintain the fiction that race and racial indoctrination have nothing to do with how he or she lives life.” Multiracial Americans should not have been concerned about how they lived their lives in Harlem, because Harlem was not the place that judged those of different backgrounds. Strangely enough, this feeling came from a constant racial identity complex that interracial people had to face, in contrast to the purebred African Americans who had no need for this emotion. Today’s African American and non African American mixed people are no longer looked at as much of an outcast, however some of them still undergo the racial identity complex. At the rate of change that has occurred since the Harlem Renaissance one can expect close to complete indifference towards people of mixed races.
Harlem was essentially the birthplace of the culture of the New Negro and for every negro to follow, especially the African American. The African American took this initial form of the Negro culture and adapted it to modern times, and it is because of these changes that one can see the drastic change in culture between the New Negro and the present day African American.
including the lack of aggression in everyday interaction between races.
Additionally, one can also see the shift in the effects of family interaction of the Negro from one time period to the next. During the time of the Harlem Renaissance, the large majority of the writers that found themselves overseas would often write about their yearning to return to Harlem (Bremer 49). The majority of the influential writers spent so much of their time in Paris that Alain Locke coined the term “Transplanted Harlem” for it. Therefore it must be evident that the change in both the social and written cultures, in regards to the change in family interaction, art, and literary styles between the two, of the New Negro in comparison to the African American of today is due to the effects of the Harlem Renaissance.
One of the major differences between the New Negro and the African American is the viewpoint on the culture. The aspects of the culture that is being focused on is the literary, and the fine arts. “In Harlem Renaissance literature,
African America's capital city is organic, not mechanical. It is fleshy-and embodied in lively colors, tastes, and sounds. This basic organicism is the first noteworthy strength of Harlem as home” ( Bremer 49). This was set during the 1920’s where Harlem culture was viewed as organic and lifelike. This was due to the fact that the Great Migration brought a large portion of the Southern Negros to the North. This motion brought some southern tendencies such as the attention to agriculture and other service based means of work. The problem with those tendencies in Harlem was their lack of use. Although the literary works of Harlem appeared to be organic, the overall lifestyle of Harlem was in fact mechanical. However, Harlem was a place of beautiful music and art works. Despite this, the organic lifestyle that the Southern culture was for could not be continued on the same scale in Harlem. On the other hand, Harlem today is drastically different than the Harlem of the Renaissance. Similarly to the rest of the United States, Harlem is currently undergoing gentrification. There are more non-black people moving into to Harlem than black people. The effect of the gentrification on the literature of Harlem could be minimal, but on the extreme end one could see the burial of many of the minor authors of the Harlem Renaissance. The loss of these authors is the type of factor is one that allows for gaps in one’s culture, in this case the connecting details that are brought by other authors than Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, and many others.
In addition to these authors and their literary works, other factors such as family and interracial interaction have a large effect on the culture of Harlem, the New Negro, and the African American.The streets of Harlem were not happy, but that unhappiness was one of the many factors that allowed the New Negro to develop in the way that he had. In Harlem, the “it takes a village” mentality was evident. Meaning that during the time the children were not cared for by their parents alone, instead the children were monitored by the neighborhood that they lived in. Due to the size of the area of Harlem the parents knew each other more which made them more inclined to notify each other of problems that arose with their children. This still holds true today with the African American, but it is taken less and less seriously. The change in times between the 20’s and the 2000’s has allowed for children to grow based on the technology around them. The culture of going outside for person to person interaction has left the African American, and has been replaced with the love of technology.
Oddly enough some say that this replacement is due to change of music that the African American listen to. “Even death confirms the generativity of life, as blues spawn the laughter of jazz and street life spills into the cabarets in Langston Hughes's first book of poems, The Weary Blues (1925) (Bremer 51).” From the Jazz came different genres such as hip hop and rap, and in the same way that music affected the children of the Harlem Renaissance it has done so with the children of the present day. The young African Americans are no longer concerned with the themes of Jazz. On the contrary, the young African Americans of the present day are more concerned with different styles of cars and the best ways to attract different varieties of the opposite sex.
In addition to the other social changes, the infatuation of non-interracial people is being replaced with the somewhat obsession of interracial people. For example in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand the main character is of Danish American and African American blood (Bremer 51). With this mix the character was unable to fully express herself in Harlem. This is similar to the feelings of the other interracial people in Harlem. However, Helms writes, “The person must maintain the fiction that race and racial indoctrination have nothing to do with how he or she lives life.” Multiracial Americans should not have been concerned about how they lived their lives in Harlem, because Harlem was not the place that judged those of different backgrounds. Strangely enough, this feeling came from a constant racial identity complex that interracial people had to face, in contrast to the purebred African Americans who had no need for this emotion. Today’s African American and non African American mixed people are no longer looked at as much of an outcast, however some of them still undergo the racial identity complex. At the rate of change that has occurred since the Harlem Renaissance one can expect close to complete indifference towards people of mixed races.
Harlem was essentially the birthplace of the culture of the New Negro and for every negro to follow, especially the African American. The African American took this initial form of the Negro culture and adapted it to modern times, and it is because of these changes that one can see the drastic change in culture between the New Negro and the present day African American.