Whites Equals Blacks

Read Langston Hughes's "Thank You M'am" here: http://staff.esuhsd.org/danielle/english%20department%20lvillage/rt/Short%20Stories/Thank%20You,%20Ma'am.pdf

Enjoy Reading This Blog Post!

(www.sistasmusical.com)

White Equals Black

Sungwoo Park

Harsh racism traumatized the country during the mid-twentieth century. Even though slavery marked its end hundred years before, Blacks were still considered “separate but equal” in the United States. Published in 1958, Langston Hughes’s “Thank You M’am” portrayed the tragedies of Blacks’ lives. Montgomery Boycott happened only a few years before, and Martin Luther King Jr. was protesting for Blacks’ civil rights while Hughes was writing this story. As an icon of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes had strenuously argued that Blacks should be able to portray their genuine lifestyles in artworks regardless of public perception. “Thank You M’am” was written to convey the basic statement that Blacks are same as the majority in the country; however, they are victimized and impoverished just because of their skin colors. Thus, Hughes, through the introduction of a young, black thief Roger and Ms. Luella Jones, sought to teach his readers that Blacks have empathy, are unfairly impoverished.

Hughes begged the public to feel the heartbeats of Blacks through “Thank You M’am.” Since the 1800s, Blacks were only considered as strong, soulless machines who could efficiently be exploited in factories and plantations. Until Martin Luther King Jr. started to advocate for civil rights as a pastor, the Blacks could not amplify their struggles as people in the lowest socioeconomic class in the United States. Hughes, using this short story, sought to change people’s minds. In the story, as Roger gets caught stealing a pocketbook from Ms. Jones on the street, Ms. Jones did not report him to the police, but tried to give Roger a chance to reflect on what he did wrong and cared for him with food and advice. She realizes that Roger does not have a family or a place to stay and starts to worry about his health and education as if she became his mother as she Ms. Jones says, “You ought to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong. Least I can do right now is to wash you face. Are you hungry?” (Hughes 2) Later, Ms. Jones takes Roger to her home and provides him with snacks and money to buy blue suede shoes that Roger wanted to buy after snatching a pocketbook. Empathy can also be seen from Roger’s change in behavior. Initially when Roger gets caught, he panics and tries to run away from Ms. Jones’s wrestling moves. Even when Ms. Jones tried to take care of Roger, he says that “I just want you to turn me loose” (Hughes 2). However, despite being an immature child, Roger’s attitude changes as he enters Ms. Jones’s house and experiences cozyness. He stops thinking of escaping the house, and “he did not trust the woman not to trust him [,and] he did not want to be mistrusted now” (Hughes 3). Through creating a behavioral change of the protagonist, Hughes informs the readers that even a young, black child is capable of thanking adults’ love and care, and he also seeks to break the stereotypes that Blacks are evil-minded thieves in impoverished ghettos. As a result, through creating interactions between Ms. Jones and Roger, Hughes pleads the readers to take a closer look at Blacks’ warm hearts and sympathy for others.

Hughes also tried to explicitly display the poverty that the Blacks were going through. Hughes starts off “Thank You M’am” by setting a dark, gloomy location in an urban city as “It was about eleven o’clock at night, and she was walking alone” (Hughes 1). As Blacks were forcibly segregated from the Whites during the mid-twentieth century, Blacks formed slums and ghettos in urban cities. Thus, those regions were often considered dangerous for people to walk around in the night. Through introducing a thirteen-year old thief who simply wants to buy a new pair of shoes by mugging others’ pocketbooks, Hughes portrays how harsh Blacks’ daily lives are, and how even young Blacks are desperate to earn money so that they could buy what they want. In addition, one could assume how bad Black children are mistreated and living in bad environments through examining Roger’s conditions. When Ms. Jones asks Roger if “[he] got nobody home to tell [him] to wash [his] face” (Hughes 1), Roger, through his concise response, implies that he does not have a family or a house. As family is crucial for a teenager who is going through adolescence, Hughes tells the readers how Black children often do not have parents living with them either because their parents died of tragedy or had gone to factories to perform manual labor for the family. Evidences of poverty of Blacks are not only seen from Roger but also from Ms. Jones who provides care for Roger. Even though Ms. Jones, in “Thank You M’am”, holds a pocketbook and has a cozy house, she is also living under economic pressure and hardships. She lives in an apartment with roommates and sleeps on a daybed, which functions as a sofa in the day and as a bed at night, and she works at a beauty shop in a small hotel. In the time frame of this story, Blacks could not be placed in a high socioeconomic position regardless of their talents, and their workplaces were limited to shops and restaurants in urban cities. Moreover, as Ms. Jones “cut him a half of her ten-cent cake” (Hughes 3), readers can easily assume that she was not wealthy, either. Therefore, through writing “Thank You M’am,” Hughes tried to teach the impoverished lifestyles of Blacks so that the public would be shocked of how they have unfairly discriminated the Blacks and made them struggle.

Hughes’s “Thank You M’am” delivers two messages that relate to the Civil Rights Movement of Blacks during the mid-twentieth century: Blacks have warm sympathy, and Blacks had unjustly been mistreated and were forced into poverty. Langston Hughes opened a revolutionary movement, the Harlem Renaissance, for Blacks to freely express their ideas in the world of literature. “Thank You M’am” was not published publicly (americanliterature.com), but this story inspired many and warmed people’s heart during a sad era when Blacks were violently oppressed and killed while fighting for freedom and voice. Although riots and protests can be suppressed through killings, literature can never be stopped. Hughes successfully conveyed his ideas to the public through his short stories and poems and ultimately contributed to the promotion of Blacks’ status in the United States.

Want to know more about Langston Hughes? Don't hesitate to visit!
http://www.biography.com/people/langston-hughes-9346313

Want to know more about Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance?
http://shs.umsystem.edu/historicmissourians/name/h/hughes/

Thank you again!