The American track record of its treatment to African Americans is saturated discrimination and segregation. To fight against the separate but equal reality African Americans, chose different ways to protest against that reality. It was through the different forms of writings that some educated and distinguished African American writers tried to portray the notion of double consciousness. Double consciousness is a term created by famous Harlem Renaissance writer W.E.B DuBois. The term double consciousness defines the action of African Americans to not only view themselves from their own unique perspective, but to also view themselves as they might be perceived by others ( in this case white people).
Harlem Renaissance period provided the African American writers with the opportunity to expose the majority to double consciousness. It allowed the Caucasians to see the internal conflict of keeping with one’s heritage but wanting to make it in America under “white” standards. W.E.B Du Bois first citied double consciousness in The Souls of Black Folk and his writings signify “how a veil has come to be put over African-Americans, so that others do not see them as they are; African-Americans are obscured in America; they cannot be seen clearly, but only through the lens of race prejudice. Till this very day many African-Americans feel “unwanted” in America. I think back to a news video I saw about a black man named Earl Sampson that was arrested fifty six times and stopped and question 258 times just because he fits the profile of a criminal. Even in this day and age African American’s are still obscured in white America. Claude McKay, a poet utilized the theme of double consciousness to reveal pain of identity crisis felt by the majority of the African Americans. Claude McKay was very interesting poet in the late 1900’s. He was born in Jamaica and was educated by his older brother. Claude McKay was the perfect model for double consciousness because he was always trying to find a place where he could belong. During the 1920’s he became interested in Communism and traveled it Russia and France to pursue his place in Communism. He came back to the United States in the 1930’s and he turned his attention to the teachings of various spiritual and political leaders in Harlem. McKay stressed on the notion of double consciousness in his poem Outcast McKay tried to reveal before his readers the tragic lives of African Americans and how the separation from the Africa was actually an outcome of the identity crisis that enforced the blacks to lead an obscure life. In Outcast the poet writes, “And I must walk the way of life a ghost
Among the sons of earth, a thing apart; ” (McKay, 11-12). It’s a deeply moving verse that shows that he has comes to terms in the eyes of white America he is no more than a visitor in America. The worst part is Mckay makes the reader believe that he can only be an outcast in a society he was forced into.
Countee Cullen was another influential Harlem Renaissance poet that used the theme of theme of double consciousness expresses the message of the African American suffering to the readers across the world. Cullen’s poem Heritage, is a reminder his fellow African Americans about their rich cultural heritage. He asked in the very first line of this poem that “What is Africa to me” and actually in disguise of a question he, throughout the poem, tried to reveal before the readers the richness of the African culture and tried to assure the African Americans that adhering to their own legacy was sufficient to pave the way for their prosperous existence in the society dominated by the whites. Honestly I feel that Heritage’s theme was a bit of a love/hate relationship with Africa. He realizes that Africa is the foundation of blacks living in America and it gives him a sense of pride to be a part of a lineage of warriors but that lineage is now an obstacle in 1930’s America. Heritage holds a very powerful stanza that sets the stage for double consciousness. Line 25-26 “somber flesh and skin, With the dark blood dammed within.” demonstrates to the reader that his God given skin is a burden to him in his new world.
Honestly I am not a great writer and given the task to create a poem about the Harlem Renaissance is tough. People like Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, and W.E.B Du Bois have done an amazing job expressing the want for acceptance in white America. However I digress here is my poem about the themes of the Harlem Renaissance.
I want
I want you look at me
Don’t look at my skin. Look deeper
I don’t want to be you BUT
I want you to accept me. I want you to understand me not pity me
You brought me here by force
Then get pissed when I retaliate
The least you can do is look at me

. In conclusion, the Harlem Renaissance period set the stage for double consciousness to reveal before the global audience the wretched psychological condition of the members of a race that was forced to embrace the dilemma of losing their heritage in order to adapt to a foreign culture, a culture whose native adherents never thought the African Americans to be a part of the mainstream American culture. And it was McKay and Cullen, who, following the footsteps of Du Bois that set the stage to announce the notion of double consciousness through their work.