Full Circle Between Lock and Baldwin's New Negro

If we were to look at the different interpretations of the new negro as a circle, I think Locke’s view represents half of that circle. Lock’s view focuses on the artist, the poets, the story writers, singers, actors and actresses etc. However Baldwin’s view focuses more on areas that Professor Stewart termed as “non elite” areas. I think it is Baldwin’s interpretation of the New Negro that brings this half circle full round. Baldwin’s view allows for a more complete comprehension of what Black success can look like. He does this by strategically beginning his discussion of the New Negro with Jack Johnson’s career as a professional boxer. Through Johnson’s career we see a shift or rather an expanse of what can embody the New Negro. Johnson also focuses heavily on the importance of entrepreneurship and he use important figures such as Madame C.J Walker. This is exactly why I say that Baldwin completes the circle of the New Negro because the accomplishments of these successful African Americans have paved the way for contemporary Black entrepreneurship. Baldwin’s interpretation of the New Negro ensured that these accomplishments and their trailblazers were recognized.

   Baldwin and Locke are similar in that when these two halves of the circle come together they provide a beautiful portrait of what Black success is. This success comes from Blacks using their culture, their talents and their business skills to disrupt racial and social hierarchies. On either side of this circle, African Americans were making history and putting pressure upon all of the forces of whiteness that were working against them. I must say that these interpretations of the new negro provide such a complex view of Blackness. No longer do we have this picture of the black man and woman as docile or simple but we have blacks contributing to society in a way that not even whites can deny!

Productive Anger

I read about George Swanson's journey to the north in "The Warmth of Suns" (p.192) I was interested in his reflecting on finally being able to sit at the front of "something". That something was the Silver Meteor headed towards the north, a new life. The narrator described Georges frustration of having to sit in a Jim Crow car, which was at the very back of the train. Not only did he and other blacks have to sit with all the luggage but they also had to deal with the fumes of burning coal and listening to the noisy engine roar the entire ride. Despite all of these discrepancies, he and other blacks were still expected to pay the same fare as that of white passengers.

Now George was sitting at the front of the Silver Meteor heading north. All of that back seat riding didn't stop his determination to get out! The narrator says "He and the other colored passengers just had to live with it. George gave it little thought because he was on his way out". George was headed towards a better life, and though the discrimination he faced in his past would always be apart of him, he was still determined to move forward.

I thought this connected nicely with Claude McKay's poem "White Houses" in "The New Negro"

Your door is shut against my tightened face,
And I am sharp as steel with discontent;
But I possess the courage and the grace
To bear my anger proudly and unbent.
The pavement slabs burn loose beneath my feet,
A chafing savage, down the decent street;
And passion rends my vitals as I pass,
Where boldly shines your shuttered door of glass.
Oh, I must search for wisdom every hour,
Deep in my wrathful bosom sore and raw,
And find in it the superhuman power
To hold me to the letter of your law!
Oh, I must keep my heart inviolate
Against the potent poison of your hate (134)

If George Swanson ever heard this poem, I think he would have felt very connected to the message. Black people were plenty angry at the way they were being treated but instead of just wasting their energy on their white counterparts, they put their anger into something progressive, taking the initiative to move to the north and make a life for themselves. As McKay expresses, Black wore their anger proudly. They might have wanted to get revenge, to make the white community feel as burdened, excluded, and oppressed as Blacks had been but they didn't waste time trying to subject whites to this same type of maltreatment. They focused on gaining justice. Again I put emphasis on the fact that both McKay and George expresses anger. Anger was most definitely in the midst of the Black struggle but they fueled that anger into something productive.