Langston Hughes in his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” speaks about racial insecurity black people have and the desire to be white. He begins by mentioning a talented black poet that said “I want to be a poet –not a Negro poet” to which Hughes interprets as a desire to become white and an internalization of the idea that whiteness is a symbol of all virtues. He conjectures that black middle class families never learn to appreciate their own people because they experience enough of what white America has to offer and allows white America to define their values. They become ashamed of blackness and fetishize and desire whiteness and all of its perceived virtues.
Such circumstances are problematic when it comes to artistic endeavors because artistic mediums facilitate individuality yet the desire for the Negro poet to be white directly contradicts the power of a work. Hughes believes that there is beauty in that individuality and that there is beauty is your own experiences as yourself. That being said, Hughes shows his disappointment towards those such as the Negro poet whose minds work under the assumption that their own racial experiences are less relevant and interesting to other races, particularly whites. The main message of the piece is that shame and fear have no place in the beautiful art of African Americans and anyone else’s.
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