The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain

Reading Check

1. An encounter with another Black poet (Paragraph 1)

2. “This urge within the race toward whiteness” (Paragraph 1)

3. The lower class (Paragraph 4)

4. Bessie Smith/Paul Robeson/Rudolph Fisher/Jean Toomer/Aaron Douglas (Paragraph 14)

Short Answer

1. Hughes interprets that statement to mean that the poet wants to write like and be a white poet, which means, ultimately, that he would like to be white. (Paragraph 1)

2. Hughes believes that the proximity to whiteness in the middle and upper classes causes Black folks in those classes to focus primarily on assimilation rather than embracing their Black culture. Lower-class Black folks, by contrast, are freer to stay closer to their roots and celebrate their Blackness, which better fosters the development of the Black artist. (Paragraphs 2-4)

3. The duty of the young Black artist is to use their art to resist the urge toward whiteness and instill racial pride within the Black community by celebrating Blackness. (Paragraph 12)

4. Fellow Black people might want the Black artist to portray them as respectable and palatable to white people. By contrast, white patrons (who would often pay for this art) might want Black artists to maintain their illusions of Black folks and their place in American society. (Paragraph 9)