Tag Archives: Langston Hughes

Caste in a Multicultural Democracy

By Robin Bates | Published: April 2, 2024

To grapple with Wilkerson’s understanding of racism as a caste system, I turn to Langston Hughes, Twain, and Arundhati Roy.

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Revisiting My Son’s Grave

By Robin Bates | Published: March 24, 2024

As I revisited the grave of my son for the first time in six years, the concluding paragraphs of “Wuthering Heights” came to mind.

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Tim Scott’s Self-Debasement

By Robin Bates | Published: February 28, 2024

Sen. Tim Scott’s self-abasement before Donald Trump brings to mind various “Uncle Tom” poems written by Black authors.

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Hughes’s Message More Urgent Than Ever

By Robin Bates | Published: July 3, 2023

Langston Hughes’s call for us to return to the vision expressed in the “Declaration of Independence” is more timely than ever.

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In Censoring Gorman, We Censor Hope

By Robin Bates | Published: May 25, 2023

Buckling to rightwing pressure, a school has banned Amanda Gorman’s “Hill We Climb” from elementary students. My 8-year-old grandson loved it.

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Moby Dick and The Whale (2022 Movie Version)

By Robin Bates | Published: November 21, 2022

In the 2022 film “The Whale,” and English professor searching for authenticity finds it in a childhood essay on “Moby Dick.”

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Death Exposes Our Conflicted Humanity

By Robin Bates | Published: July 18, 2022

When we lose someone we love, we may have feelings that don’t appear laudable. Malraux’s “Man’s Fate” helps us understand them.

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Holding America to Its Ideals

By Robin Bates | Published: July 3, 2022

Whitman and Hughes, together, remind us of the American promise.

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Addressing a Long and Sad History

By Robin Bates | Published: March 29, 2022

The long overdue anti-lynching bill signed into law by Biden yesterday brings to mind powerful lynching poems, including this one by Hughes.

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