Langston Hughes’s “I,Too” is an assertion and affirmation of the black ego that has been always relegated . It is an attempt to subvert the dialectical pair white/black.

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I’ll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

“Eat in the kitchen,”

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed–

I, too, am America.

Hughes penned the poem at the age of 22 in the city of Genoa in 1924.The title of the poem by Langston Hughes has the black ego asserting itself. “I” stands for the ego. But the ego is not egoistic here as it declares: ”I, too.” The speaker wants a place at par with the whites.

America as a country has always been represented by the whites. The innumerable blacks that inhabit the country are relegated as citizens owing to the practice of Apartheid. Just as the East, they are viewed as ’the Other.” In their own country, they are attributed only second-class citizen status.

Singing is an expression of freedom. Walt Whitman emblematizes the action of singing in “I hear America Singing” as an affirmation of being American. Here the speaker contends: “I, too, sing America.” The use of present tense is a reminder to the ‘currentness’ of the situation, and the abolition of the practice of racial discrimination. The song also denotes the national anthem of America.

He eloquently states: “I am the darker brother.’ The phrase ‘dark brother’ points to the idiom of ‘being the dark horse’. The expression refers to a low profile person who is not noticed, but eventually wins the race. The word ‘brother’ connotes the intricacy and intimacy that the blacks experience in relation to America, and their American counterparts.

Just as a servant is sent to the kitchen to eat, the black is degraded based on his color. When company or guests come, he is a source of shame to be camouflaged. Yet, he laughs in lively spirits, eats his meal whole-heartedly and grows ’strong’. The term ‘strong’ not only refers to the condition of being strong physically, but also mentally.

The speaker envisions a Tomorrow, when he will not only be present, but have dinner at the table with the guests. In such a stance, nobody would ‘dare’ to pack him off to the kitchen. The black will then no longer be marginalized or ostracized as they were. Racist-laws will be abolished and rights will be reestablished. He would not longer be restricted to the atmosphere of domesticity (symbolized by the kitchen)or menial work. He will then enter into the realm of thinking, where he would have the ability to think for himself and declare: I, too, am America.

They would also then comprehend how beautiful the speaker was and be remorseful for their past actions. In his “Dream Variations”,  Langston Hughes cherishes his black skin that gifts him with an inexplicable feeling.

©Rukhaya MK 2011

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