By Alex Tran
Summary
Poets Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou pioneered the idea of speaking out against racial injustices, inspiring the hip-hop genre to later follow in their footsteps and use their platform of music to bring awareness and change.
The history of the United States, the self-acclaimed champion of the free world, is ironically one rooted in racism. From slavery to the Jim Crow laws, generations of black people living in the United States have suffered at the hands of prejudice throughout their lifetimes. Though slavery was abolished in 1865, its legacy lives on in the form of systemic racism against African Americans. This continuation of unjust treatment spurred poets Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou to use writing and the literary arts as a means of articulating the lack of equality within 20th century America – a time in which instances of police brutality and other racist demonstrations were common. Because poets and writers such as Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou highlighted the racism of the 1900s, their trailblazing actions inspired current African American artists within the hip-hop community to use their platform to speak out against modern-day racism in a similar fashion.
Though slavery was abolished in 1865, its legacy lives on in the form of systemic racism against African Americans.
Born in 1902, Langston Hughes, through his exploration of the prejudice practices in America, paved the road for future African American writers to follow in his footsteps and advocate for their rights.; Hughes grew up in a culture characterized by the racism of the Jim Crow laws, and because he understood the problematic nature of inequality, he used his poetry as an outlet to speak out against the injustices of the early 1900s. As Hughes made his way into mainstream American literature, he brought much attention to the issue of civil rights through his numerous calls for action against racism within the United States. “Let America Be America Again” depicts Hughes’ plea for the dream of equality to be extended to people of color. Defining America as the land of the free, “America was never America to [Hughes]” (Hughes, line 5). Hughes didn’t understand “why God [doesn’t] protect a man from police brutality” (Hughes, line 18) or why “white and colored can’t sit side by side”(Hughes, lines 5-6). This shows how Hughes understood and urged others to consider the hypocrisy of America portraying itself as a country of equality while blacks were subjected to constant discrimination and brutality. Through his poetry, Hughes scrutinized the injustices of his generation, calling for action against the racism that he and his community endured.
Hughes didn’t understand “why God [doesn’t] protect a man from police brutality” or why “white and colored can’t sit side by side.”
Similar to Hughes, Maya Angelou also lived through police brutality and discrimination prevalent during the latter half of the 1900s. Born in 1928, Angelou was raised in Stamps, Arkansas, where she experienced relentless discrimination throughout her childhood. She vividly remembers how her disabled uncle was hidden under sacks of potatoes to escape a lynching for a crime he didn’t commit. Her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings chronicles her life up to her young adulthood, focusing on aspects of her struggle with racism. For example, during Angelou’s eighth-grade graduation, a white speaker insinuated that black students’ only achievements were sports-related and not academic. Maya laments about how “awful [it was] to be a Negro and have no control over [her] life” (Angelou 180). Although her graduation night had seemingly been ruined, Henry Reed’s valedictory speech lifted the dejected atmosphere when he led the students in singing the Negro National Anthem. Maya, emotionally moved by this, finally took pride in her cultural background. His actions were the catalyst that allowed her to understand that her being African American was not inherently wrong or disadvantageous but that society was wrong for discriminating against her race. Her epiphany led to this firm declaration: “I was a proud member of the wonderful, beautiful Negro race” (Angelou 184). I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings brought the racial prejudice of Angelou’s generation into the national spotlight and is now considered a staple of high school literature, a sign that African American literature becoming more integrated within education systems, bringing awareness to racism and discrimination in an educational setting.
African American literature [was] becoming more integrated within education systems, bringing awareness to racism and discrimination in an educational setting.
Since Hughes’ and Angelou's time, the art of poetry has continued to evolve as artists explore new techniques of expressing themselves, their struggles, and their journeys. In the 1980s, a new form of lyrical poetry called hip-hop emerged into the music scene. Dominated mostly by people of color, the hip-hop scene provided a medium for artists to share their ideas and aspirations. Many hip-hop artists of color took inspiration from Hughes and Angelo, using their works to portray the injustices and discrimination that they endured. Tupac is a prime example of an artist who pioneered the integration of social justice into hip-hop. Although the Jim Crow laws were abolished in 1964, institutionalized racism still continued to exist within the justice system and among law enforcement. Tupac heavily emphasized the injustices black people faced, claiming in “Changes” that “the penitentiary's packed, and it’s filled with blacks” (1:52-53). Black people make up a large majority of the incarcerated population in the US, and on top of that, many private prisons benefit from the incarceration of blacks, “packing” their penitentiaries for profit. His music challenging the practices of an unjust justice system captivated black people throughout the nation in times of unrest. One of his famous lines, “Cops give a damn about a negro, pull the trigger kill a [black man], he’s a hero,” (0:24-28) references the beating of Rodney King, an instance of prejudiced police brutality. Because African Americans have a heightened risk of experiencing police brutality in comparison to the average American citizen, they often feel alienated from the justice system; the police officers that are meant to protect them and their families instead kill innocents because of an ingrained racial bias. Many calls for change within the justice system followed the release of these lines in Tupac’s hit song “Changes.” Tupac and many other artists also incorporate literary devices used by poets in their songs, such as rhyme, alliteration, and allusion, allowing them to build more engaging narratives, captivate their audiences, and move them to advocate for the social issues mentioned in their lyrics. Taking inspiration from the calls for social justice of poets such as Maya Angelo and Langston Hughes, hip-hop artists use their platform to bring awareness to racism and police brutality in modern society.
Many calls for change within the justice system followed the release of these lines in Tupac’s hit song “Changes.”
Although the issue of discrimination and police brutality has improved in the past decades, incidents of police brutality that showcase the flawed justice system still persist throughout the United States. To combat this issue, hip-hop artists implement allusions to police brutality and racism into their lyrics in hopes of inspiring their audiences to act upon these social issues, similarly to the way that their predecessors, poets Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou, did. Like Tupac, artist Kendrick Lamar consistently implements allusions to police brutality in his songs. For example, a line from his hit song “Alright” inquires, “what MAC-11 even boom with the bass down?” (1:42-45), a reference to how the truth about police brutality and institutional racism is suppressed, just like the MAC-11 firearm. This suppression allows the general public to live in blissful ignorance of issues that result in detriment to the black community. Lamar’s subtle allusions to police brutality allow fans of hip-hop who look into the meaning behind his lyrics to explore and understand his interpretations of the current discussion surrounding police brutality. Although Lamar utilizes subtlety in his lyrics, some artists explicitly state their criticisms of the current racial environment, including condemnation of the injustice in the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbury in 2020, which caused large-scale protests and public outcry throughout the country. Using their music to call for racial peace and the end of police brutality, artists today have a similar goal to hip-hop legends of the past like Tupac, but their platform and influence in mainstream society have grown much larger. Artists such as Dominique Armani Jones, who goes by the stage name “Lil Baby,” make songs such as “The Bigger Picture” that address these issues head-on, urging people to judge “by the mind and the heart,” (1:07-09) and not by complexion. Artists today have realized that they have the ability to invoke change through their words, inspired by how Hughes and Angelou did through theirs.
Artists today have realized that they have the ability to invoke change through their words, inspired by how Hughes and Angelou did through theirs.
In conclusion, the black community has been discriminated against and oppressed throughout the majority of the history of the United States. Poets Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou pioneered the idea of speaking out against racial injustices, inspiring the hip-hop genre to later follow in their footsteps and use their platform of music to bring awareness and change. As a result, the advocacy of social justice has seen many different evolutions and mediums, each bringing social issues further into the eye of the general public, urging them to act and fight for what is right.
Works Cited
Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Random House, 2015.
Hughes, Langston. Let America Be America Again. Harold Ober Associates, 1936.
---. Merry-Go-Round. Alfred A. Knopf, 1942.
---. Who But The Lord. 1949.
Jones, Dominique A. "The Bigger Picture." My Turn,
Lamar, Kendrick. "Alright." To Pimp A Butterfly, Top Dawg Entertainment, 30 June 2015.
Shakur, Tupac. "Changes." Greatest Hits, Universal Music Group, 13 Oct. 1998.
Zaru, Deena, and Lakeia Brown. "Hip-hop Has Been Standing Up for Black Lives for Decades: 15 Songs and Why They Matter." ABC News, ABC News, 12 July 2020, abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/hip-hop-standing-black-lives- decades-15-songs/story?id=71195591. Accessed 30 Mar. 2022.
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