"I, Too" -- Shame in 1926 and in 2018

I, Too

(Langston Hughes, 1902-1967)

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 –

A poem can be timeless art. Even a simple verse from long ago can echo throughout a troubled land.

Langston Hughes' poem “I, Too” was initially titled “Epilogue” when it appeared in The Weary Blues, the 1926 volume of his poetry. It has been anthologized repeatedly and scholars have written about it many times. The poem is written in free verse and features short lines and simple language. It portrays a person's ambition to assert his legitimacy as an American citizen and as a respected human being.

Hughes wrote "I, Too" from the perspective of an African American man – possibly a slave, a free man in the Jim Crow South, or even a domestic servant. It lacks a concrete identity, and this feature creates a high degree of universality.

The speaker in the poem begins by declaring that he too can “sing America,” meaning that he is claiming his right to feel patriotic towards America, even though he is the “darker” brother.

The historical significance is unmistakeable. The verse alludes to the common practice of racial segregation during the early 20th century, a time when African Americans faced discrimination in nearly every aspect of their lives. Blacks were victims of racial violence, and faced economic marginalization in both the North and the South. One critic identifies the opening lines of the poem as illustrative of W.E.B. DuBois’s theory of “double-consciousness":

“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, – an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”

We still live in times when bigotry is commonplace. Under a divisive president, Americans are in great turmoil as they struggle mightily with issues of equality like immigration and civil rights. The leader emboldens nationalists to treat minorities with contempt, and he has instilled a desire in his legions to return to a past dominated by racial inequality.

America today is infected by a narcissistic segregation, a division fashioned to serve those with the narrowest of tolerance and little concern for common dignity. In this nation, “right” is defined as what best serves the elite while fear feeds the support of the xenophobic masses, many of whom simply following mindless emotion while being told what is “wrong.”

The “darker brother” today is still the minority – the black – but it is now a metaphor for the Hispanic, the Latino, the Islamic, the gay, even the second-class woman. I invoke this poem to prove that the vision of Langston Hughes is unfulfilled. Although Hughes in 1926 believed an equal society was to emerge in a not-too-distant future, his beautiful “tomorrow” has not been realized today – a day almost 100 years later.

The “I” in the 21^st century “I, Too” is a leader with self-serving interests. He is the self proclaimed “first person” whose egotistical rantings cause a volatile segment of America to still scream, “Eat in the kitchen!” In doing so, they have carved an shameful scar in the face of the nation.