Respond to McKay’s vision of urban life as he depicts Harlem and in New York more generally
In Claude McKay’s poem, “Harlem Shadows”, he describes Harlem and New York in a generally negative light. He describes the setting in this poem with young women walking through Harlem as the day ends and the life of the sky degrades. In the 3rd stanza, he writes “Ah, stern harsh world, that in the wretched way Of poverty, dishonor and disgrace,” describing NY and Harlem as a disgusting city and it highlights the setting of New York during the time when this poem was written. McKay was born in Jamaica but lived most of his adult life in the US. A lot of McKay’s work highlight the contrast between his calm life growing up in Jamaica vs the racist and mostly unpleasant life growing up in early 1900s US with a racist society. Despite the racist environment of NY/Harlem at the time, African-americans still persevered and continued to live in NYC despite the racism. This idea still applies today but not in relation to racism. Some people would still describe NYC as a disgusting city riddled with poverty, honor, and disgrace but we choose to still live here despite the negatives.
Adding on to your statement, McKay used “when the night lets fall/ Its veil” to emphasis the racial struggles that’s going on. People are viewing them through the view of the veil, which obstruct people’s judgement of African Americans. It could also be concluded with that quote that people are not acknowledging what is actually happening to African Americans. As for your last statements, I agree with them. New York, as of today, is a melting pot of different cultures and ideas. Many different groups of people pushed through the difficulties, which makes New York what it is today. Although the conditions aren’t as bad as back then, New York is still not completely perfect.
I strongly agree with your personal ideas specially the last three sentences.
New York has not changed, there are still people around New York city who are homeless and face difficulties passing their daily life. And yes, there is still racism in New York it has not been faded away however, it has been reduced dramatically.