As a man who described his works as an attempt to explain and illuminate the negro

condition in America (The World's Poetry Archive, 2012), it is not surprising that many of
Langston Hughes creations were so particularly intertwined with his own experiences as an
African American living in an often hostile territory such as early 20th century United States.
Evidence of this can be found in poems such as Brass Spittoons which details his first regular job
cleaning toilets in a hotel when he was in 7th grade (Tracy, 2004); as well as in Advertisement for
the Waldorf Astoria where he acknowledges the terrible consequences of the Great Depression,
while condemning the hypocrisy the more wealthy citizens and their opulent lifestyle, and which
whom he was mixed up at the time (Bernard, 2001). For this reason, it seems rational to say that
through a better understanding of important details pertaining his life, from the days in which he
was born in Missouri in 1902, until his death in New York in 1968 (Tracy, 2004), a reader may
illuminate his understanding of some of his works. Such is the case with The Blues I'm Playing
(TBIP from now on), a short story involving the relationship between Oceola Jones, an African
American pianist, and her white patron, Mrs. Ellsworth. The following essay attempts by means
of a biographical literary criticism to explain how Langston Hughes' own relationship with his
white patron, Charlotte Mason, during the late 1920s, parallels with the events in TBIP, and how
these occurrences in Hughes' life led him to explore the topics of Paternalistic Racism and Du
Bois' Double Consciousness concept in this short story.
From the very beginning one studies the events in Hughes' life throughout the 1920's, it
becomes immediately apparent the influence Charlotte Osgood Mason had on his early career. A
woman that similar to Mrs. Ellsworth had no children of her own was one of the wealthiest
people in New York after inheriting the fortune of his late husband (p.1). She also came to his life
at a similar time Oceola meets her patron in TBIP1, and both were also introduced by the
recommendation of a second party with knowledge of the arts (Shields, 1994). Through what
seemed at first like a blessing in Oceola's life, for she now had the monetary resources not only to
fund her creative work, but also to broaden her cultural knowledge, Hughes relates his own
experiences with Mrs. Mason2, and how with time, this devolved into a toxic relationship of
oppression, and paternalistic racism. Beginning with chapter III onwards, it seems Mrs. Ellsworth
1
2

According to Shields, Hughes met Mason in November 1927.Oceola meets Ellsworth in 1928.
Like Oceola and Ellsworth (p.8), they both visited art museums, went to trips and attended concerts together
(Tracy, 2004).

attempts to micro-manage every detail in Oceola's life, from the place where she lives I must get
her out of Harlem, I believe it worse than Chinatown.(p.4) and It's so small. You must have
more space for your soul, dear. And for a grand piano (p.5); the type of music she plays She
wished she could lift Oceola up bodily and take her away from all that...[referring to Oceola
playing blues and jazz in Harlem parties] (p.6); to her relationship with her fianc She won't
need him, she will have her art. (p.9). With these scenes Hughes may be trying to mirror Mrs.
Mason's dominant personality, albeit in a more subdued fashion, as sources paint her as even
more tyrannical. Authors like Emily Bernard (2001), and Carla Kaplan (2013) have emphasized
the demanding personality this woman had, and her controlling attitude towards her protges. As
a woman who demanded to be addressed by the pseudonym of godmother, and also to kneel
before her, it is not surprising that she ordered Hughes to completely commit to his writing,
severing his social life, and she also expected him to consult her regularly on all his writings, to
the point of forcing him to re-write some of his works if she did not like what she saw.
In a similar manner to Mrs. Elsworth, who wanted Oceola to forsake blues and jazz, and her
love for Pete in favor of what she con sired true art3, Mason wanted Hughes to focus in writing
about the primitive aspects of his race4. With this demeaning attitude and bigotry, TBIP seems to
present the reader a different kind of racism: Paternalistic Racism. Which Pierre Van Den Berghe
explains happens when: Whites set the standards to which all peoples are expected to conform.
Mason and Ellsworth in this respect become two sides of the same coin. On one hand, Mason
wanted Hughes to only embrace in his works a specific topic, as she felt [...] blacks linked
American whites to the primitive life and should concern themselves only with building on their
cultural foundations (Tracy, 2004), something Hughes completely rejected. On the other hand,
Ellsworth, who has throughout his life ignored African Americans and their culture 5, desires to
whiten the pianists playing style. Oceola feels just as if she were performing Chopin tude when
playing African American folk music like blues (p.7); however, for Mrs. Ellsworth folk music is
undignified and unworthy of the teachings Oceola has had (p.9), even going as far as asking
Oceola is this what I spent thousands of dollars to teach you? (p.10) when she plays blues
during their final meeting. They both showed paternalistic racism in the sense that they believed
3
4
5

As can be seen in When she saw how love had triumphed over art, she decided she could no longer influence
Oceola's life (p.10).
According to Kaplan (2013) she was a primitivist, obsessed with the perceived energy of the primitive races.
She has never sponsored a black protges (p.1), and has never being to the dark section of New York (p.4).

it a mission to take these African American protges, and instill on them a set of rules for what
they thought someone of this race should behave, either by exclusively embracing their African
roots, or by totally striping them of them because they believe them to be inferior 6. Ultimately,
this paternalistic racism Hughes and Oceola experienced leads to a more complex idea that TBIP
seems to be hinting at, double consciousness. This concept was developed by W.E.B. Du Bois in
the year 1897. He described how the repression African Americans have endured throughout the
last few centuries by the whites, makes them unable to develop a sense of African American
identity, for they have been forced to either embrace their African roots, or whiten themselves and
act as white Americans (Allen, 2002). Langston Hughes was one the most vocal advocates of this
concept7 during the whole period known as the Harlem Renaissance, as in his essay The Negro
Artist and the Racial Mountain he urges African Americans to not strive to be like white artist,
and form their own identity. In TBIP this concept becomes important as the plot advances. It
seems that Mrs. Ellsworth represents white Americans at the time who devalued the status of
black culture, just like Mason did with Hughes, and the end implies a cultural liberation not only
in Oceola, but in Hughes himself8 This is mine. . . . Listen! . . . How sad and gay it is. Blue and
happy -- laughing and crying. . . . How white like you and black like me[...] (p.11).
Studying the engrossing life of an artist such as Hughes has provided a better understanding
on the topics he addresses in TBIP. Like no other at the time, through his works he criticized the
numerous inequalities of the society he lived in, and the many complex forms racism may take; a
fact were he was well-versed as many a time he had been a victim of these. With paternalistic
racism he explores a concept well ahead of its time, a more subtle type of racism that threatened
African American identity as a whole, for subjugating to the standards set by whites meant losing
one's own self, and unique perspective of the world. With Oceola's actions, he ultimately
demonstrates it is worth fighting for the freedom to express yourself as both a Negro and an
American without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, as Du Bois would put it.

6
7
8

Mason often regarded Indians and people of African descent as child like (Shields, 1994).
Du Bois was one of his influences since his early childhood (Tracy, 2004).
The final scene in Ellsworth's apartment (p.11) mimics to some extent Hughes last encounter with Mason, he felt
psychosomatically ill after their final meeting (op.cit).

Biographical References
Allen, E. (2002). Du Boisian Double Consciousness: The Unsustainable Argument. The
Massachusetts Review, 14, 217-253.
Bernard, E. (Ed.). (2001). Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl
Van Vechten. New York: Vintage Books.
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1903). The Souls of Black Folks. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.
Hughes, L. (1926). The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain. New York: The Nation.
Hughes, L. (1934). The Ways of White Folks. New York: Vintage Classics.
Kaplan, C. (2013). Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance. Boston:
Harper Collins.
Shields, J. (1994). Never Cross the Divide: Reconstructing Langston Hughes' Not without
Laughter. African American Review, 28, 601-613.
Tracy, S. (Ed.). (2004). A Historical Guide to Langston Hughes. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Van den Berghe, P. (1967). Race and Racism: A Comparative Perspective. New York: John
Wiley & Sons.
World's Poetry Archive. (2012). Classic Poetry Series: Langston Hughes [On-line Document].
Available:
http://www.24grammata.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/langston_hughes_2012_2.pdf
[Consulted: 2016, February 10].

Repblica Bolivariana de Venezuela

Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Educacin
Universidad Pedaggica Experimental Libertador
Instituto Pedaggico de Caracas
Departamento de Idiomas Modernos
Programa de Ingls
Literatura Norteamericana

Paternalistic Racism as Explored by Langston Hughes in The Blues I'm Playing

Section 002
Tutor: Gonzlez, Adriana
Author. Molina, Horus

February, 2016