Topic > The Complex Impact of the Harlem Renaissance on Race and Gender Roles

IndexInfluence and Role of the Movement in African American HistoryThe Harlem Renaissance: A Defeat in the Fight for Women's RightsChallenges and ContradictionsConclusionThe Harlem Renaissance occurred at beginning of the 20th century. It was when many Africans moved to New York City and developed a community called Harlem. It was also known as the Golden Age of African Americans because, during this time, African cultures began to flourish, especially the artistic side of these African Americans. Some also called this period the New Negro Movement. This movement may seem like a very successful movement for African Americans, however, this was not the case for some aspects of society regarding gender roles and race. This article will analyze the impact of the Harlem Renaissance on gender roles and race. The Harlem Renaissance is considered the golden age of African American cultures, however, this movement has both a positive and negative impact on African American society regarding race and gender roles. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Influence and Role of the Movement in African American HistoryThe Harlem Renaissance is known as a successful movement in African history, but it was not successful enough to give African Americans the same respect and equality as whites. For example, in the story “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston we see the female protagonist Delia Jones in the role of a washerwoman who washes clothes for white people. We know this when her husband Sykes told her, "I told you over and over again to keep those white people's clothes out of the house." Zora Neale Hurston was one of the most important figures of the Harlem Renaissance. It focuses on the struggles of the female character in this story, but by reading it we could still see that even if African Americans were freed, they would still work for the whites. In this quote, we see that Delia's husband is angry at her for washing white people's clothes, however, this does not seem to affect Delia because she "continued with her job" and it was a way for her to earn money on the job. weekend. Furthermore, in the diary of Allen Dunn and George Hutchinson, they state that the Harlem Renaissance failed to give African Americans a position in US society when they state: “According to its critics, the movement's 'failure' stemmed from the alleged weakness of his artistic successes to his inability to bring about a significant change in the position of African Americans in American society." Here Dunn and Hutchinson recognize the failure of the Harlem Renaissance's achievements. They argued that the movement failed to bring about significant change because, even though it focused primarily on artistic cultures, it was still weak and therefore the movement was unable to place African Americans in the same society as whites. Matthew N. Hannah expanded on this idea when he stated that: "In many ways, his work combated the misrepresentations, stereotypes, and shoddy scientific studies of African American life by white social scientists." Here Hannah argues that African American life has been misrepresented by white social scientists. Earlier in his journal, he mentioned that “racial uplift relied on cultural production that showcased black genius, and the emerging science of sociology focused on black life as an object worthy of study.” in American society their lives were studied as if they were "an object to be studied". Use "object" to emphasize that the lives ofAfrican Americans was studied and how researchers would conduct research on various things. He's comparing African American life to things that are researchable. Dunn and Hutchinson argued that African Americans could not be fit into US society and Hannah is arguing that their lives were being researched to fit into US society. The relationship between these two articles is that because African Americans could not be incorporated into U.S. society, they were the subjects of research. These two articles may also pertain to Hurston's short story “Sweat.” Furthermore, because of the way African Americans were viewed by whites, they would use any opportunity to change their color identity to have the same rights as whites. For example, Barbra Chin wrote a journal titled “'It's a Funny Thing About 'Passing'': A Discourse Analysis of Nella Larsen's Passing and New Negro Identity Politics,” here she analyzed Nella Larsen's novel. He claimed that one of the characters was mistakenly assumed to be white but did not correct the driver when he states: "Irene enters the Drayton, a whites-only hotel, after her taxi driver mistakes her for a white woman and she does not correct him. here, while she herself momentarily passes for white, who reacts so disdainfully to the idea of ​​passing.”The Harlem Renaissance: A Defeat in the Fight for Women's RightsAccording to Elyse Demaray and Lori Landay they state“The Harlem Renaissance was seen as a male movement; we immediately think of Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Jean Toomer as representatives of this period – not Nella Larsen, Jessie Fauset, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Gwendolyn Bennett or Marita Bonner.” Although Anne Spencer has been considered one of the most significant poets of the Harlem Renaissance, less attention has been given to her role as an important innovator of American modernism.” She further states that "Together, these three poems tell an intricate story of how normative masculinity and femininity are constituted through their binarized relationship with vulnerability." She also stated that "Spencer thus highlights how these traditions and conventions fail to protect women." African American women were also classified by whites. For example, black women were considered “images of the mammy and the tragic mulatto persist in representations of blacks modeled in stories and songs.” A “mammy” was a black nurse who cared for white children, while a “mulatto” was a woman of mixed race: one parent black and the other white. Mayberry states that "Continuing the Southern white projection of Mammy as cook and housekeeper, always caring for her people, oral tradition denies her harmlessness and presents her as 'cunning, inclined to poison her master, and not at all pleased with the her fate'. This mammy refutes any kind of debasement associated with motherhood and imbues the role with the dignity and responsibility that derive from the African image of the mother as a symbol of the creative forces of the land. The tragic mulatto also appears in slave narratives, but there is little romance in the stories. Any advantages that the mulatto woman might have due to her bond with the master are easily offset by the abuse she suffers and the alienation and frustration she feels". Harlem Renaissance, it is essential to recognize that the movement did not erase the systemic racism and sexism prevalent in American society. Racial segregation, discrimination, and violence persisted, and African Americans continued to face barriers to accessing peers, 33(2), 219-232.