Discrimination is the unfair treatment of a person or group of people based on prejudice. In American history, African Americans were subjected to great oppression and discrimination. The injustices visited upon Blacks came to a head during the 1950s and 1960s, leading to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965. Prior to this, oppression, violence, and discrimination were routine for Blacks in American society. This history of discrimination is captured in a variety of works of art, including Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem," Dudley Randall's poem "Ballad of Birmingham," and Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun." In all three of these works, we see the heavy price paid by African Americans due to living in a discriminatory white society. This analysis will illustrate discrimination as it appears in each of these works, highlighting differences and similarities.
When Langston Hughes wrote "Harlem," African Americans were subjected to segregation and discrimination in American society. Opportunities in housing, employment, education, and other aspects of society were routinely denied to African Americans. However, Hughes does not speak of discrimination overtly in the poem. Instead, he uses the symbolism of a "dream deferred" to represent how African American dreams are often quashed by discrimination and prejudice of whites (Hughes 1). In the poem, Hughes wonders what happens to such a dream. The speaker in "Harlem" imagines dreams might be deferred in any number of ways, decaying and "stinking like rotten meat" or perhaps they "crust and sugar over-Like a syrupy sweet" (Hughes 1). Ultimately, Hughes' speaker thinks the weight or burden of discrimination is too have and of dreams he thinks, "May it just sags / Like a heavy load. / Or does it just explode" (Hughes 1). This final line could mean that frustrated African Americans, denied their dreams, might explode in violence.
By the tim...