Racism in Langston Hughe's Poem "Theme for English B"

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Racism in Langston Hughe's poem "Theme for English B"
Langston Hughes's poem "Theme for English B" highlights the inner conflicts that people of color experience in a predominantly white society. The poem's speaker believes that the underlying connection between himself and his professor crosses age, race, and privilege. Based on this belief, the speaker argues that people of color and white people are "part" of each other and should never be viewed as distinct or separate. This is the theoretical and ideological understanding or interpretation of race issues, where there is a benign belief that everyone is equal. According to this interpretation, race is just a difference in the color of one's skin, and nothing more. In reality, race is imposed on people of color, especially African Americans who are perceived as minorities and second-class citizens. It has over time been the biggest cause of division in the country, and now it continues attracting a lot of criticism and strong reactions from various quarters. As a result, Hughes' poem presents race as something that is falsely believed to be an intimate part of the identity of black people. For instance, the speaker's passion and hobbies do not have any particular relationship to his race. They are similar to those of other people that belong to other races. However, his skin color is used to classify him and deny him opportunities. This is seen in the English class, where the speaker is forced to write his black experience on a white paper, which makes attending college a more challenging endeavor for black students than whites.
The relevance of most literary works is always down to the context in which they highlight the issues therein. Most of them are usually focused on addressing the ills that occur in society on a day-to-day basis. Hughes's poem is still relevant today because the speaker's experience and struggles represent a larger American experience, where race has been used as a weapon to marginalize some groups culturally and socioeconomically. Historically, "white" was exclusively used to describe elite white men and women because the whiteness of their skin signaled that they were people of a high social class who did not go outside to labor. Subsequently, the term became a code to symbolize all the benefits that the white people in the country could enjoy and not the black. These benefits went as far as the neighborhoods to live in.
On the other hand, "black" was used to represent African Americans as people who belong to an inferior race. The issues with race date back to the days of slavery, where the bl...