Jean Toomer

Toomer, Jean. "Jean Toomer." The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. Ed. David L. Lewis. New York: Viking Penguin, 1994. 301-07. Print.

It almost seems unfair to the first two poems in this section to be paired up with the final poem, The Blue Meridian, since it overshadows them so much. I really loved Toomer’s message here, which echoed back to the other reading we had by him. That message is one of transcendence – going beyond race, color, creed, and beliefs to a state of humanistic harmony.

Toomer’s beliefs on racial inequity parallel my own beliefs on religious differences that the world is so caught up in today (although it’s not really all that new). The underlying bigotry is the same: “we hate you because you’re different than us”, and what Toomer says about transcendence is much the same as what I’ve said about religious hostilities, albeit using slightly stronger language.

I read the little biographical information before getting into the poems in this section, and for once it actually helped without ruining the ending of the story/whatever. And, as the biography notes, I am somewhat surprised that this text falls into the “Harlem Renaissance Reader”, since it doesn’t particularly line up with most Harlem Renaissance mantra. Rather than advocating removal of African Americans to Africa, like Marcus Garvey, or racial equality through intelligent discourse, like Du Bois, Toomer goes beyond recognizing race and rather says that “we are all just people”. And, further, rather than advocating a push towards transcendence of race, Toomer merely notes that we are waiting for it: “We are waiting for a new people, for the joining of men to men and man to God.” I don’t know how far to go with radical passivism like this before you’re just being silly and asking for people to walk all over you, but in essence it is a beautiful theory. It’s a shame that most people are too primitive to understand it.