The beauty of African-American art

Dear comrades, we stand united today to discuss a controversial situation. I, Eubie Black, am standing here to help you illuminate yourselves and understand why “American Art” is not the ultimate goal for us. It is not rare the day that I meet with an African-American pianist, a Negro painter, a Black singer; and I hear them say that they don’t want to be classified as “African-American”, “Negro”, or  “Black”. Dear comrades, this is when I wonder, If we are not going to give ourselves credit, who will? If we don’t stand proud of our roots, who will? If we don’t fight for recognition and respect, who will?

Langston Hughes, the successful Negro poet, describes our skin as something deliciously unique, for which we should be honored to have. In “Dream Variations” he refers to our color as “coffee and cream, licorice, clove and cinnamon”. Black skin is beautiful peers, it is a part of us and we should not cover or hide it, we should be proud of it.

Black people; we are just as human as white people, we are as American as white people, therefore we should be treated equally. If we are just as special as them, then why must we change for them? Why should we adjust our art, our appearance, our beliefs, for them? We should respect our roots, and fight for others’ respect as well.

Being Negro comes with not only black skin, but with a complete culture. The jazz and the blues, the portraits with black characters, the poems about oppression and racial discrimination; they are all part of ourselves and we must not suppress them for the white public. Paul Roberson, the well-known  black actor and activist, imputes his fame to the black representation he did for interracial plays. If his Negro plays are fruitful and accepted by the audience, then the rest of Negro art will be accepted too; and if it’s not the case then we must not care. Every artist faces criticism, every art piece is meant to be presented to a judging audience. We must not let the opinions of “white Americans” affect us. The purpose of our art is to liberate our afflicted history and painful past, not to enliven white people.