Langston Hughes

When I read these poems; The Cross, Dinner  Guess: me and Harlem by Langston Hughes, it made me to think about Kunta Kinte in the 'Roots', once which  was a very popular television series. The series were adapted from the book Roots: The Saga Of The American Family written by Alex Harley in 1976. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an Africa, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his alleged descendants in the U.S. The story in 'Roots' mainly about the oppression by whites on blacks. 

African Americans have been known by many names. They were called Negroes, Blacks and Coloureds. The term “nigger” was used in the southern part of the USA , where discrimination against them was very bad. In the last 30 years the term African Americans has officially been used. Many world leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King were among those who fight against this discrimination. There were still other groups of people who opposed this same issue in a different way. Among them are novelist and poets. Langston Hughes was among one of them. 

Many of the Langston poem's theme seems to be revolved the theme of racist. The Cross, Dinner guest and Harlem are based on the same issues. The cross which was written by Langston Hughes in 1920's convey his dilemma in a witty way. The persona in this poem actually apologizing his dead parents for blaming them for his bitter life because he wasn't accepted by blacks nor whites. His mother was a black and father his was white. He was so confused not knowing in what category he falls into, black or white.The persona is stuck in them iddle of two extremes, poor black America that was looked at with disgust by white America and rich, "ideal" white America was looked at with eyes of amazement and hate by black America. The poet was angry with his parents for passing him on an amalgam of genes (cross).Hughes touched on the psychological hardships of being a mixture of black and white descent in this poem. 

The dinner guest; me, on the other hand tells about a black American who is an honored guest at a banquet where most or all of the other people at the table are white Americans. They all think of themselves as anti-racist. But because white and black historical experiences in America are so radically different, there's a lot that the white folks just don't get. Towards the end of the poem, it is stated that the solutions for 'the Problems' America's troubled racial history is still a long way from being solved.

As for the poem Harlem, it is concerning frustration  of American blacks even though after the  federal laws had granted them the right to vote, the right to own property, and so on. They were relegated into the second class citizenship. 

The issues raised by Hughes in these poems (oppressed by white) not only faced by African American but also by other marginalized ethnic groups, for instance Brahmins in India.