Page 31 - BCALA Spring 2018

A Review of “When the Negro Was In Vogue”
by Langston Hughes
By Tahira Ahmad
This poem is more of an evaluation of the relationship between Negroes and whites during the Harlem Renaissance, right up to slavery.
Two things are very distinct: first, Hughes’ repetition of “it was a period when” in almost every long passage/ sentence. Why did Hughes depict such grandeur of that particular period in the “uprising” of Blacks (the affluence of emerging Blacks?). He most likely was trying to introduce the “negative aspects” of the New Negro and the “supposedly progressive movement”.... (the superficial parties and the delusion of the people-Blacks in particular).
Were there any significance changes? Yes ...changes in ways which
allowed the Negroes to develop their communities enough to intrigue the whites? The deep meaning of the “Negro in vogue” is illustrated in the narratives that express the Negro feelings toward all things intriguing to the Whites. On a deeper note, Hughes excludes almost all nostalgic feelings about the past ....he introduces a harsh kind of reality that exposes
the “new –age Negro” as being more
interested in carrying out favors for the Whites, than caring about building a political and artistic advancement of the African Americans.
Hughes’ anger or perhaps, frustrations are expressed in: ”At every Harlem upper-crust dance or party, one would be introduced to various distinguished white celebrities there as guests. It was a period when almost any Harlem Negro of any social importance at
all would be likely to say casually: 'As I was remarking to Heywood—,' meaning Heywood Broun. Or: 'As I said to George—,' referring to George Gershwin”.
(Hughes’ example of “social climbing” was Blacks who were more interested in name-dropping and hobnobbing with White celebrities, than in advancing their own people’s political agenda....how could/can something as insidious as racism be fought head on if those with the “most money
and power” are more interested in “personal connections” with the “well- connected White”?
How is Hughes’ writing style? For starters, his style describes
Harlem of the 1920s. It starts out all positive and somewhere in between, the real truth is fully introduced, which chatters the reader’s fresh romantic notions of the Harlem Renaissance. Finally, the end of the passage is more fascinating. Instead of using the original phrase “New Negro”, Hughes ends the paragraph with the phrase, ‘when the Negro was in Vogue. While “in vogue” has some similar connotations to “New”....a sort of chic, kinky phrase usually used to describe “fashion trends”. Using the word “Vogue” to describe freed slaves must have a significance that expresses nothing more than the
fact that, the Blacks involved in the movement simply couldn’t live up to their own “social and political ideals”.
BCALA NEWS | Volume 45, Issue 2 | 31
HIS STYLE DESCRIBES HARLEM OF THE 1920S