Negro Art and America

Barnes, Albert C. "Negro Art and America." The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. Ed. David L. Lewis. New York: Viking Penguin, 1994. 128-33. Print.

This essay goes out of its way to homogenize the black race, and in doing so makes itself a pathetic waste of paper. The artists and great minds of the Harlem Renaissance do not, implicitly, represent black culture as a whole. They were a select few who, through riches or contacts, managed to rise above the rest in order to live whiter lives. I do not in any way see how these deviants represent all black people, but rather represent how a few people in every society get lucky once in a while. It is like George Carlin preaching about the evils of wealthy white men when he himself was one of the wealthiest white comedians in the world (as a disclaimer, Carlin is one of my all-time heroes and favorite performers): it’s a caricature, or a low-budget television reenactment, of the horrors and woes of a suppressed race.

The line that struck me the hardest was Barnes’ claim that America’s only great music was black spirituals. A very simple, honest response to this is: no, it isn’t. I do agree that spirituals, particularly blues and jazz, hold a special place in American art and are very exemplary forms of music, but they are not the only American music that is worth something. For example, several contemporaries of the Harlem Renaissance are considered the voices of America to this day: Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, and Leonard Bernstein.

I’ve noticed this attitude in other essays that we’ve read for this class, and every time it comes up I have to scoff. Claiming that black culture is important doesn’t bother me, but claiming that is it the only importance America has ever had is ignorant and childish, like a young teenager convinced that their band is the “best ever period”. It isn’t. Putting things into perspective, such as referencing black culture against American culture as a whole, would make essays like this a bit less frustrating and, perhaps, a bit more meaningful.