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“Stop Killing Us” painting by Makenna Toney

Freedom will not come

Today, this year

Nor ever

Through compromise and fear.

I have as much right

As the other fellow has

To stand

On my two feet

And own the land.

I tire so of hearing people say,

Let things take their course.

Tomorrow is another day.

I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.

I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.

Freedom

Is a strong seed

Planted

In a great need.

I live here, too.

I want my freedom

Just as you.

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Both hughes’ ‘freedom’ and makenna toney’s ‘stop killing us’ persuade the audience to protest by using a similar theme of racism. For example, hughes states “i have as much right as the other fellow has to stand on my two feet.” this shows that hughes lacking freedom and is oppressed but he wont stop fighting for hus rights. Even though hughes is experiencing the oppression and racism, he feels like he has to fight for his rights because he knows he’s strong. Hughes uses a personal pronoun (i) to reveal that he is going through a lot of oppression and racism but he will never give up, for example ‘on my heartstongs, freedom sings all day everyday.’ this emphasizes the fact that oppression limits the rights and opportunities of the black community. During this time, hughes, like other black americans suffered and had to deal with unfair treatment because of their race. Likewise, makenna toney in ‘stop kiling us’, she painted this art piece to spread awareness about her rights, for example toney’s painting shows that in the painting a girl is crying and she looks like shes begging for freedom, and she is oppressed like all other black people. This shows that it was perhaps unsafe for black women like makenna to take a walkin public because theyre longing for freedom. The spread of oppression also affected young teenagers, adults, and children. Makenna toney uses perspective to reveal a young teenager from whose perspective the picture was painted. The official figure of the artwork is a young teen sobbing. This emphasizes the fact that the girl was tired of the spread of oppression and that she is longing for that freedom that white people have, she’s basically saying that its not fair white teenagers have the right to do whatever they want without feeling oppressed, but black teens cannot do anything without feeling oppressed. Makenna created this artwork because she wanted people to feel the magnitude of what they were seeing, not just in her art but in the whole world. Like hughes, makenna wanted people to feel the magnitude of what her and hughes were trying to tell the world. Being a young teen caught in a racist society was what makenna was trying to highlight, and as mentioned before, this artwork woke up so many people to realise about the oppression black people had.

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Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes

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Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes

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"Civil Unrest" painting by Kavion Robinson

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!

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Both Hughes's ‘Let America Be America Again’ and Robinson's ‘Civil Unrest’ persuade the audience to protest by using a similar theme of racism. For example, Hughes states "O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME" This shows that Hughes lacks freedom and is oppressed but he won't stop fighting for his rights. Even though Hughes is experiencing oppression and racism, he feels like he has to fight for his rights because he knows he’s strong. Hughes uses a personal pronoun (i) to reveal that he is going through a lot of oppression and racism but he will never give up, for example, ‘America never was America to me’ emphasizes the fact that Hughes is saying that America wasn't the America he lived and grew up in and that oppression limits the rights and opportunities of the black community. During this time, Hughes, like other black Americans suffered and had to deal with unfair treatment because of their race. Likewise, Kavion Robinson in ‘Civil Unrest’, painted this art piece to spread awareness about his rights in America, for example, Robinson's painting shows that in the painting a woman is casually walking in the streets of America and is trying to avoid all of the cops because she is oppressed like all other black people. This shows that it was perhaps unsafe for black women like the woman in the painting to take a walk in public because they were longing for freedom. The spread of oppression also affected young teenagers, adults, and children. Robinson uses perspective to reveal a young woman from whose perspective the picture was painted. The official figure of the artwork is a woman trying to walk without having to deal with the American police. This emphasizes the fact that the woman was tired of the spread of oppression and that she is longing for the freedom that white people have, she’s basically saying that it's not fair white teenagers have the right to do whatever they want without feeling oppressed, but black teens cannot do anything without feeling oppressed. Robinson created this artwork because he wanted people to feel the magnitude of what they saw, not just in his art but in the world. Like Hughes, Robinson wanted people to feel the magnitude of what he and Hughes were trying to tell the world. Being a young woman caught in a racist society was what Robinson was trying to highlight. As mentioned before, this artwork woke up so many people to realize the oppression black people had.

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15 minutes for groveland painting by Nathan Casteel

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I’ll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

“Eat in the kitchen,”

Then.

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

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Both Hughes's ‘I, Too’ and Casteel's ‘15 minutes for groveland’ persuade the audience to protest by using a similar theme of racism. For example, Hughes states "I am the darker brother" This shows that Hughes lacks freedom and is oppressed because he lives in a house full of white people and he is the only black person there, and he feels oppressed. Even though Hughes is experiencing oppression and racism, he feels like he has to fight for his rights because he knows he’s strong. Hughes uses a personal pronoun (i) to reveal that he is going through a lot of oppression and racism but he will never give up, for example, ‘I am the darker brother’ emphasizes the fact that Hughes is saying that he is the darker brother in his family and he feels very oppressed and that oppression limits the rights and opportunities of the black community. During this time, Hughes, like other black Americans suffered and had to deal with unfair treatment because of their race. Likewise, Nathan Casteel in ‘15 minutes for groveland', painted this art piece to spread awareness about his rights and other black people's rights, for example, Casteel's painting shows that in the painting theres 3 brothers and all of them are feeling very oppressed because they were all accused of raping a white woman. This shows that racism is spread around the world a lot, and people blame black people for everything bad when they never even did anything. The spread of oppression also affected young teenagers, adults, and children. Casteel uses perspective to reveal 4 young men. from whose perspective the picture was painted. The official figure of the artwork is 3 men getting arrested for something they didn't do. This emphasizes the fact that these 3 men were tired of the spread of oppression and that they are longing for the freedom that white people have, she’s basically saying that it's not fair white people have the right to do whatever they want without feeling oppressed, but black people cannot do anything without feeling oppressed. Casteel created this artwork because he wanted people to feel the magnitude of what they saw, not just in his art but in the world. Like Hughes, Casteel wanted people to feel the magnitude of what he and Hughes were trying to tell the world. Being a young man caught in a racist society was what Casteel was trying to highlight. As mentioned before, this artwork woke up so many people to realize the oppression black people had.