When I read this poem by Langston Hughes I didn't quite understand what he was talking about because the word choice that he had used. There were two words in particular that I had to look up and these words are avarice and blights. I figured out, by using a thesaurus, the word avarice meant greedy and the word blights meant disfigurement. When I put these words back into the original poem I learned that what he was trying to say was this, "Nor avarice (greed) blights (will disfigure) our day." When I finally figured out what he said I reflected on that.
The meaning of the poem is related to my views tremendously. I know that racism still exists throughout the entire world but the country that I live in has a huge problem with it. I view all people as one and think that we all came from one background and that we are all perfect in our own way, why should the color of skin get in the way of that? It is rather quite childish to be going around and hurting people emotionally, physically, and mentally just because of the amount of pigment in their skin. I think Hughes hit it right on the mark when it comes to my views.
I also have a philosophy when it comes to this major controversial topic. I have been taught the history of my country and the majority of it was being spent murdering, raping, and torturing those of a darker skin tone. This was happening to the Natives of this land when the Europeans came here, and then to the African slaves who were being brought here against their will. I think that being racist means that you're just insecure of your own culture and heritage which is sad because everyone on Earth has a good and full background at some point in their history.
I can relate Hughes' poem easily to my life; it is all around me whether it's trying to be hidden from me like in some news stations or if it's being told to me flat-out face to face. I know that there is a big problem in the state that I live in with people being extremely racist towards Mexicans. This is astounding because of the fact that the place where I live was Mexican soil before it was even American soil. There is also racism going on around the country that affects me right here in my hometown. This racism is towards President Barack Obama (whom I support). It is especially geared toward him because he is part black and Muslim.
When I envision my world in the future I can still see racism in it. This is not good but this is just what I think. I think this because it has been like this for thousands of years and there have been brief moments in our history where an amazing person will step up to the plate and take on the challenge of racism. For example, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Even though this is what I think the future will be like this is not what I want it to be like. I want to change it. To do this I can do things like raise awareness in my school or even take things to the local news about how I feel and that may even go national. I can even go online and sign an online petition to help stop racism. There are so many possibilities.
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