If We Must Die/ Black Arts

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The Black Arts movement and the Harlem Renaissance are both significant time periods in African American history. These time periods gave birth to several unforgettable literature, music, dance, and art .Two poems from those eras that remain popular in today's society are “Black Art” by Armiri Baraka and “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay. Although both inspirational they focused on very different styles and tones. Similarly, the two poems address the same audience in their literature. As seen in many poems wrote during the Black Art Movement, Armiri Baraka directly states his audience in lines “Let Black people understand/that they are the lovers and the sons/of warriors and sons/of warriors” While Claude McKay notes “If we must die—let it not be like hogs/Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,/While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,” McKay 's indirectly indicates that his audience are African Americans. Those lines 1-3 refers to the way African Americans were hunted after by their white counter parts during slavery. The poems also share a common use of words that in many ways can be viewed as a protest. Each poem makes you feel like you are in a setting with a black leader who is inspiring you with a speech to take action. For example, Claude McKay’s poem states “If we must die, O let us nobly die/So that our precious blood may not be shed in vain” ( 5-7, “If We Must Die”) .Likewise Armiri Baraka writes “Let Black people understand/that they are the lovers and the sons /of warriors and sons/of warriors” The authors are urging their black audience to stand up for themselves. The poems are telling their audience they the shouldn’t settled for the horrid mistreatment and racism that is being forced upon them. They emphasis that fighting back is inevitable for change. Moreover,the action in both poems are clear. There is a war between African
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