I would like my first blog response to be dedicated to a passage in the introduction of our reading. This passage not only invoked a second reading, but also an intense examination of the implications of this material. James Johnson wrote in 1922, “The world does not know that a people is great until that people produces great literature and art. No people that has produced great literature and art has ever been looked upon by the world as distinctly inferior.”
There are a number of ideas that I took from this excerpt. I realized that I have taken the civil liberties given to me for granted. It never occurred to me that the freedom to write and express oneself through art is something that can be held as a standard of a culture’s status. Growing up in a humanities dominated household, I always considered these things a way of life. However, literature in my schools always included the dominant white, male authors such as Chaucer and Shakespeare. I am excited to begin exploring the African American side of literature.
The standard set by Johnson undoubtedly gave the African American community motivation to prove equality through the form of literature and art. The timeline in the back of our text showed time and time again African Americans struggling to make their voices heard and their writing published. Culture (not necessarily speaking of African Americans) includes everything about that society – its way of life, its music, art, literature, customs, etc. African Americans were not given the opportunity to really define and mold their culture. Even in my home state of South Carolina, slaves and their masters were punished if reading and writing were taught. How is a culture supposed to grow and define itself when others are crippling it?