“Walking while black” versus “Harlem”

Part of your exam assignment is to draw parallels between the article “Walking while black: Michael Brown, black men and white police officers” by Ishmael Sistrunk and the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes.

Outline: “Harlem” by Langston Hughes

In the poem “Harlem”, the lyrical speaker asks what happens if dreams are postponed and gives some possible answers to this question. He asks if these dreams dry like raisins or become like a festering wound. He also wonders if they can rot like meat or become like a sugar crust. In the end, he describes them as a load and asks if they eventually explode.

The poem was written after World War II and is about the dreams of the Harlem community (formed primarily by African Americans), which seemed to have been postponed. The main idea of the poem is that postponed dreams and promises can lead to social unrest.

Parallel between the article and the poem

If we think about the African-American community after World War II, it is easy to guess that Langston Hughes used the metaphor of dreams to refer to African Americans’ dreams of obtaining equal Civil Rights. At that time, ...