Langston Hughes
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain

 
One of the most promising of the young Negro poets said to me once, "I want to be a poet—not a Negro poet, "meaning , I believe, "I want to write like a white poet;" meaning subconsciously, "I would like to be write like a white poet;" meaning behind that, "I would like to be white." And I was sorry the young man said that, for no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself. And I doubted that, with his desire to run away spiritually from his race, this boy would ever be a great poet. But this is the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America—this urge within the race toward whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the mold of American standardization, and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible.
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An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might chose.
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We younger Negro artist who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too. The tom-tom cries and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn't matter either . We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.