The general argument made by Langston Hughes in his poem “I Too” is the suffering America experienced from racial inequality between whites and blacks. More specifically, Hughes argues that America is wrong in the way blacks were dismissed. He writes, “They send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes.” (page 594) Here, Hughes is describing the way that the American “family” dismisses the “darker brother” to the kitchen for dinner as though they are ashamed and embarrassed by him. He continues to write, however, “Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table.” (page 594) Here he is describing the hope he feels for blacks and whites to be considered equals. In conclusion, it is Hughes’ belief that blacks were treated unfairly under the discretion of whites in America.
In my view, Hughes is right because I agree that in the time period he wrote the poem, America treated blacks very unfairly and that whites were wrong in their opinion that they were in any way superior. For example, there were many laws back then that made white people’s lives easier than blacks and racism was tolerated too much. Although Hughes may argue that the people then did not fully understand the equality of men, it is my position that blacks were treated too poorly. Therefore, I conclude that Hughes’ position on racism in the early 1900’s of America was right.
