43 thoughts on “Reading “The Trope of a New Negro and the Reconstruction of the Image of the Black” and “Enter the New Negro” Due Feb 3”

1. “There is light beyond the darkness,
   Joy beyond the present pain;
   There is hope in God’s great justice
   And the Negro’s rising brain.”

   -from the Gates reading

   “Yet under further pressure and injustice iconoclastic thought and motives will inevitably increase. Harlem’s quixotic radicalisms call for their ounce of democracy today lest tomorrow they be beyond cure.”

   -from the Locke reading

   1. I feel like this quote from Gates’ reading is mentioning the rising hope that society will be able to positively develop.

2. My name was Isabella; but when I left the house of bondage, I left everything behind. I
   wan’t goin’ to keep nothin’ of Egypt on me, an’ so I went to the Lord an’ asked him to give
   me a new name. An’ the Lord give me Sojourner, because I was to travel up an’ down the
   land, showin’ the people their sins, an’ bein’ a sign unto them. Afterward I told de Lord I
   wanted another name, ’cause everybody else had two names; an de’ Lord give me Truth,
   because I was to declare the truth to de people.
   -The Trope of a New Negro p.133

   It does not follow that if the Negro were better known, he would be better liked or better treated. But mutual understanding is basic for any subsequenc cooperation and adjustment.
   -Enter the New Negro p.632

   1. I agree with what was said in your quote from the “Enter the New Negro”. If African Americans were better represented they would have also been better liked and better treated.

   2. I also agree with the lines you chose from Enter the New Negro because if African Americans were more acknowledged and known, they would’ve have been respected, cherished, and treated better

3. “I am just as opposed to Booker T. Washington as a voter, with all his Anglo-Saxon reinforcements, as I am to the coconut-head, chocolate colored, typical little coon, Andy Dotson, who blacks my shoes every morning. Neither is fit to preform the supreme function of citizenship”.
   -The Trope of a New Negro P. 130

   “Time was when that small cluster of descendants of the benevolent old Dutch masters and of the free negroes moved with freedom and complacent importance about the intimate fringe of the city’s active life. These Negroes were the barbers, caterers, bakers, restauranteurs, coachmen- all highly elaborated personal service positions.”
   -Enter the New Negro P. 641

   1. “I am just as opposed…” This is a quote from a Mississippi senator named J. K. Vardaman. I think it’s telling that Gates noted that no matter how respectable or educated a Black person became white society would be hesitant or even unwilling to even view them as citizens in the same way that they would treat a Black person who was not as educated. I think this is also interesting when dealing with the class divides within Black communities and the way of even creating hierarchies within the race as a way to differentiate the more educated from the less.

4. “I am just as opposed to Booker T. Washington as a voter, with his Anglo-Saxon reenforcements, as I am to the coconut-headed, chocolate-colored, typical little c**n, Andy Dotson who blacks my shoes every morning. Neither is fit to perform the supreme function of citizenship.” – Trope of a new negro p.130

   “When the colored people do leave Harlem, their homes, their churches, their investments and their businesses has become so valuable they can no longer afford to live on it. ” -Harlem, Mecca of the new Negro p.638

   1. Kleptomania towards BIPOC communities and their home that were nothing but later considered valuable.

   2. “GENTRIFICATION! I thought it was new to my neighborhood though as always history repeats itself. “When the colored people do leave Harlem (More like priced out) … [businesses] have become so valuable they can no longer afford to live on it. This is so reminiscent of what happened in my own area from the announcement of the Barclay’s Center opening, Franklin Avenue was a place everyone tried to avoid now it’s home to all kinds of new businesses by people who moved in (Thank goodness for rent-controlled apartments lol).

   3. Replying to Harlem Mecca of the new negro this quote shows how migration effective them how they had to leave everything behind bc of not being able to afford it further in the reading it shows how in colored ppl were charged 2x the amount in rent just bc the landlord’s wanted too and bc “white ppl did not want to see heir neighbors turn black”

5. “There is light beyond the darkness,
   Joy beyond the present pain;
   There is hope in God’s great justice
   And the Negro’s rising brain”
   -The Trope of a New Negro pg. 137

   “A college lad”
   -Harlem, Mecca of the new Negro pg. 654

   1. I really like that included the caption here too of “a college” lad. It reminds me that there is something powerful in the artist who may not be professional, who may not be known.

6. “What is of importance here is Adams’s stress upon the “features” of this “new”
   Negro, drawing a correlation between the specific characteristics of the individuals
   depicted and the larger character of the race. Why is this so important? Precisely
   because the features of the race-its collective mouth shape and lip size, the shape
   of its head (which especially concerned phrenologists at the turn of the century),
   its black skin color, its kinky hair-had been caricatured and stereotyped so
   severely in popular American art that black intellectuals seemed to feel that
   nothing less than a full facelift and a complete break with the enslaved past could
   ameliorate the social conditions of the modern black person”
   -The Trope of a New Negro p 143

   “There are tenants who are most in need of it the whites do not have it they can go elsewhere to other parts of the city to the suburbs”
   -Harlem, Mecca of the new Negro. 694

7. LINK TO THE GROUP CHAT
   https://chat.whatsapp.com/LF4Lmoy2y9L7XdShveniVh

8. “But in what sense could Frederick Douglass be “representative”? In the sense of mode, or mean, or median… Douglass was the representative colored man in the United States because he was the most presentable. And he was the most presentable because of the presence he has established as a master of voice.”
   – The Trope of a New Negro P.129

   “He [the New Negro] cannot be swathed in their formulae. For the younger generation is vibrant with a new psychology; the new spirit is awake in the masses, and under the very eyes of the professional observers is transforming what has been a perennial problem into the progressive phases of contemporary Negro life.”
   -Enter the New Negro P.631

   1. I liked your quote about Frederick Douglass being “representative” of the colored man in the United States due to him being the most presentable because to the average person who has been only exposed to degrading comments about negroes, Frederick Douglass does not fit the stereotype and his distinction from the negative negro stereotype shows that negroes have the potential to have class and character made him interesting.

   2. I really liked the Enter the New Negro quote you chose. It perfectly depicts how the youth had a lot of powerful new ideas that were sparking a great change.

9. The Trope of the New Negro p. 131:
   “We commenced our cultural lives in this hemisphere as veritable deconstructions, if I may, of all that Western culture so ardently wished itself to be. Almost as soon as blacks could write, it seems, they set out to redefine-against already received racist stereo- types-who and what a black person was, and how unlike the racist stereotype the black original indeed actually could be.”

   Enter the New Negro p. 633:
   “We wish our race pride to be a healthier, more positive achievement than a feeling based upon a realization of the shortcomings of others. But all paths toward the attainment of a sound social attitude have been difficult; only a relatively few enlightened minds have been able as the phrase puts it “to rise above” prejudice.”

   1. I like your quote from “The Trope Of A New Negro” pg. 131, it’s natural to push back on a negative image that people identify you with. But it doesn’t have to be done in a vengeful way it can be done elegantly and firm.

10. “The Trope of a New Negro and the Reconstruction of the Image of the Black”

    “Despite an unprecedented emphasis upon black histories written by black historians, however, the New Negro’s relation to the past of the Old Negro is a problematical one. ‘Let us smother all the wrongs we have endured,’ urges one essayist; ‘Let us forget the past.’”

    This passage speaks to me especially as a Black writer/ journalist. It is critical for Black stories and narratives to be written by Black writer. I would like to speak more about the part that says, “Let us forget the past,” because I don’t quite agree with 100%. I do believe that holding on to the effects of racism can be detrimental to the progression of Black Americans. However, we cannot forget our past.

    “Enter the New Negro”
    “Our greatest rehabilitation may possibly come through such channels, but for the present, more immediate hope rests in the revaluation by white and black alike of the Negro in terms of his artistic endowments and cultural contribution, past and prospective. It must be increasingly recognized that the Negro has already made very substantial contributions, not only in his folk-art, music especially, which has always found appreciation but in larger low humbler unless acknowledged ways.”

    This passage highlights the importance of contributions Black people have made throughout the world, especially in the art world. I would like to talk more about this although I think being humble for Black people is understandable. Black people could brag and boost rightful so for the ENDLESS contributions that white people have benefited from them. However, it can be done in a respectful manner.

11. The Trope of the New Negro p129:
    “Douglass, then, was the most representative colored man both because he represented black people most eloquently and elegantly and because he was the race’s great opportunity to represent itself in the court of racist public opinion. Black Americans sought to re-present their public selves in order to reconstruct their public, reproducible images.”
    Enter the New Negro p634:
    “It must be increasingly recognized that the Negro has already made very substantial contributions, not only in his folk art, music especially, which has always found appreciation, but in larger, though humbler and less acknowledged ways.”

12. “Whereas the image of a “New Negro” has served various generations of black intellectuals as a sign of plenitude, of regeneration, of a truly reconstructed presence, the image of the black in what I like to think of as “Sambo Art” has served various generations of racists as a sign of lack, of degeneration, of a truly negated absence.”- The Trope of New Negro p.130. I felt these lines stood out and also thought it was important because the art wasn’t being acknowledged for so many generations due to the lack of unenlightenment people who were racist.

    “The fiction is that the life of the races is separate, and increasingly so. The fact is that they have touched too closely at the unfavorable and too lightly at the favorable levels.” – Harlem, Mecca of the new Negro p.632. I felt these lines stood out and also thought it was important because it starts off by saying that the divide between people based on their skin color is unnecessary and pointless. This also shows on how this might make people feel more relatable.

    1. The fiction of separate lives is a useful and critical idea to draw out of Locke’s essay. It means that whether you are black or not, there is a relationship, and in that moment, the relationship could be shaped by awareness and what art and literature express. This might prove really useful when looking at the covers of Crisis Magazine.

    2. The passage you chose from “Harlem, Mecca of the New Negro” also stood out to me when reading it, because it made me think of segregation laws and how they were doomed to fail. The reality is that blacks and whites in the US have always been inextricably linked, and although we may choose to separate into our own communities, we will always coexist.

13. “Accordingly, to manipulate the image of the black was, in a sense, to manipulate
    reality. The Public Negro Self, therefore, was an entity to be crafted.” (The Trope of the New Negro, p.137)

    “And finally, with the Negro rapidly in process of class differentiation, if it ever was warrantable to regard and treat the Negro en masse, it is becoming with every day less possible, more unjust and more ridiculous.” (Enter the New Negro, p.631)

    1. This quote about manipulating the image of what’s considered black is very interesting wording to me. It’s already difficult enough to exist as a human being without being manipulated because of your skin color.

    2. I find it interesting that manipulating the image of the black was to manipulate reality because it shows how powerful the image of blacks means to others.

    3. I think what you point out is important because class differentiation use to shape a certain narrative. A narrative was not only false but ridiculous and short sided. Furthermore cloaks a certain type of evil that doesn’t normally get talked about. Which is how class differentiation actually happen and who causes it?

14. “‘To feel that you are something better than a slave, or a descendant of an ex-slave,’” she writes, “‘to feel that you are a unit in the womanhood of a great nation and a great civilization, is the beginning of self-respect and the respect of your race.’” It is this direct relationship between the self and the race, between the part and the whole, that is the unspoken premise of A New Negro.” (The Trope of a New Negro, p.140)

    I was inspired by the ideas and writings of Fanny Barrier Williams. It’s empowering how she emphasizes the discrimination that put down African American women’s spirits while also calling attention to the feelings and advancements of African Americans that lead as a basis for ‘A New Negro’.

    “With this renewed self-respect and self-dependence, the life of the Negro community is bound to enter a new dynamic phase, the buoyancy from within compensating for whatever pressure there may be of conditions from without.” (Harlem, Mecca of The New Negro, p.631)

    I think it’s amazing how these feelings and ideas are influencing and inspiring African Americans to push the movement of ‘A New Negro’ and encourage people to be outspoken, proud, and to express themselves.

    1. Your recognition of William’s focus on spirit and black womanhood helps me think further about how gender makes a difference but maybe that as a black woman, she’s offering something distinct to a larger cause of uplift.

15. “And just as utopia signifies, ;no-place,” so does “New Negro” signify a “black person who lives at no place,” and at no time. It is a bold and audacious act of language, signifying will to power, to dare to recreate a race by renaming it, despite the dubiousness of the venture” (Gates,132). Language and a metaphor can help account for the past and offer a place for something “new” which is so important when perhaps there is entitled place, to begin with. 

    In “Enter the New Negro” I am always fascinated by the opening lines and last lines because they suggest that there is a need for a new way of thinking through black life. In the opening lines, Locke proclaims: “In the last decade something beyond the watch and guard of statistics has happened in the life of the American Negro and the three norms who have traditionally presided over the Negro problem have a changeling in their laps. The Sociologist, The Philanthropist, the Race-leader are not unaware of the New Negro, but they are at a loss to account for him” and it makes me think sociological study, charity or general benevolence, and even protest politics cannot quite make space for something new. At the same time, I wonder if Locke really means things because he also published this piece in a social research magazine and admits frustration with politics. I am not sure if he really reconciles this.

16. “It must be increasingly recognized that the Negro has already made very substantial contributions, not only in his folk-art, music especially. which has always found appreciation, but in larger, though humbler and less acknowledged ways” (Harlem, Mecca of The New Negro 631).

    “who realized that ‘labor is the common denominator of the working class of the world. Exploitation…the common denominator of oppression everywhere…A New Negro, finally, is she or he who ‘speaks the language of the oppressed’ to defy the ‘language of the oppressor'” (Trope of a New Negro 147).

    1. I found your usage of the quote from “Trope of a New Negro” to be very reflective of today. I believe that black people at this time were starting to understand the “game” of oppression or in other words, they were beginning to understand how to overcome the racial oppression of their time. This compares to the many people today looking to overcome financial oppression to live the lives of their dreams.

17. Quote: “(Sambo Art) has served various generations of racist as a sign of lack, of degeneration, of a truly negated absence. The two sets of figures can also be said to have a certain cause and effect relation, with the fiction of a negro American who is (now) somehow “new” or different from an “old negro” generated to counter the imagine in the popular American imagination of the black as devoid of all the characteristics that separate the lower forms of human life from the supposedly higher forms.
    Note: This quote illustrates how we portray people are double edge swords. In this context we see how it’s being use in an evil and manipulative way.

    Quote: “But beyond this, Harlem represents the negro’s latest thrust towards Democracy.”
    Note: This is important quote to recognize because it ties into the article The Trope of a New Negro and the Reconstruction of the Image of the Black. By talking about image of blacks. The article also mentions Frederick Douglas attempts to changes the racist narrative of blacks. Harlem captures this in a whole because it shows how wrong others are about the culture of blacks.. Allowing blacks to have sense of unity and democracy. As well as the start to changing the narrative.

    1. I like this second quote you used because it hints at an action that is both active and passive. Black people are actively trying to move towards freedom and democracy however they are doing it through art and every day things. They are simply trying to show that they are civil by forming a community in which they are unified like you said. They are passively showing that society’s conceptions of them are wrong

18. “On the contrary,blacks published more novels between 1853 and 1865 (six), when they were fighting slavery, than they did when they were at least nominally free,the freest that blacks had been in this country since the day before they set sail for Virginiain 1619. It is as if the great and terrible subject of black literature-slavery-found no immediate counterpart when blacks were freed. Once Redemption had established itself as a new form of enslavement for blacks, blacks regained a public voice,louder and more strident than it had been even during slavery.” – The Trope of a New Negro and the Reconstruction of the Image of the Black

    – this is interesting to me because it suggests that unless there is conflict, Blacks do not have a voice. This is culturally relatable because our modern day media has been criticized for always keeping Black people in “strife“. Whether it be slavery or abuse or drugs, Black people only seemed to be relevant through suffering (a trope I am very glad is dying). However with this passage, e we can see that this is not new. The fact that more novels were written during times of slavery than times of freedom is very telling about how Blacks tell their stories and what they believe is “news worthy” about their thoughts and their lives.

    “However, this new phase of things is delicate; it will call for less charity but more justice; less help but infinitely closer understanding. This is indeed a critical stage of race relationships because of the likelihood, if the new temperament is not understood, of engendering sharp group antagonism and a second crop of more calculated prejudice.” – Enter the New Negro

    – I think this is an important point because the emergence of “the New Negro” and it’s acceptance into society is completely placed on African Americans. It is they who have to maneuver the new territory in a way that is both unapologetic yet easily digestible. I think this is once again a point that holds up even today because many Black people now feel as if they are constantly responsible for society’s reactions to them as a people. They must be perfect citizens in order to be treated as equals and any treatment they receive, whether good or bad, is always justified.

    1. This first passage interested me because similar waves are currently occurring in the publishing with LGBTQ+ novels. I would like to find out more on how these two movements parallel.

19. “And, just as utopia signifies “no-place,” so does “New Negro” signify a “black person who lives at no place,” and at no time.”
    -The Trope of a New Negro

    “The survey is seeking, month by month and year, to follow the subtle traces of race growth and interaction through the shifting outline of social organization and by the flickering light of individual achievement.”
    – Enter the New Negro

    * I chose these quotes from each of the sources because they both gave some insight into how black people at this time saw themselves and their hope for future generations. I believe this generation of black people was seeking unity within their communities by using their unique talents to collaborate in informing/educating, entertaining, and taking control of their identity.

    1. The passages you selected, especially the first one, are wonderful examples of this mass awakening of Black people. The Harlem Renaissance gave time and space for Black people to contemplate their own existence and control the narrative. Before this period, Blackness wasn’t conceptual—society was more concerned with Black bodies and what Black bodies could produce. The passages you chose and your comment on both of them denotes a journey into defining Black personhood and Blackness as an identity.

    2. A question I thought of while reading: is the New Negro supposed to be invisible? Will the New Negro be erased?

20. “At least since its usages after 1895, the name has implied a tension between strictly political concerns and strictly artistic concerns.” – Gates pp. 135

    “He has in superlative measure that fire and light which, coming from within, bathes his whole world, colors his images and impels him to expression. The Negro is a poet by birth.” – Locke pp. 668

    These two passages highlight the question of what it means to depoliticize Blackness. It makes me kind of excited to explore more throughout this course how the Harlem Renaissance will allow Black people to express and exist in no particular proximity to whiteness.

21. “Despite its stated premises, the New Negro movement was indeed quite polemical and propagandistic, both within the black community and outside of it. Claiming to be above and beyond protest and politics, it sought nothing less than to reconstruct the very idea of who and what a Negro was or could be.” (The Trope of a New Negro and the Reconstruction of the Image of the Black, p.148)

    “The consequences are not necessarily damaging to the best interests of civilization. Whether it actually brings into being new Armadas of conflict or argosies of cultural exchange and enlightenment can only be decided by the attitude of the dominant races in an era of critical change.” (Enter the New Negro, p.634)

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