Harlem Renaissance
...l be constrained to honor us though dead.” White people that we as blacks are angry at and despise for what they have put us through, are the monsters. Still one day the monsters or white people will have to honor us even though we are no longer here. McKay states that “O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe!” could mean that one day we will look that for in the eye and demand what is due to us respect. The one line that strands out to me was “Though for outnumbered let us show us brave, and for their thousands blows deal one death blow. This means that although white people outnumber blacks, we must continue to scratch and crawl as black people. For all the slavery abuse and disrespect that they have dished out to us, if we continue to grow and prosper that will kill the strangle hold that they have on us. “What though before us lies in the open grave” the grave has already been dug for us but what can we make of our life until then? McKay mentioned that “Like men well face the murderous, cowardly pack pressed to the wall, dying but fighting back.” This is the stay of all African American that have paved the way for us today. We stand up and face the enemy, even though we have no where to go and our backs are against the wall we fight back in order to survive. The second poem I chose is called “To the white fiends”. I chose this poem because of the light of hope that McKay spoke about. I think this poem takes on a meaning of all the things that white people have done to us, we could easily cause distress in their lives. “Be not deceived for every deed you do I could match out match”. Please do not think that I am not capable of doing the same as you. We are very intelligent as people and just as smart as you. Am I not Afric’s son? Though all that we have been through being African American, we are ver...