Arnold Rampersad's The New Negro

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The “Introduction” by Arnold Rampersad that is about The New Negro: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance that was written by Alan Locke focuses on the writer’s work in an admirable and critical ways. Even though most part of the Introduction focuses on how well the author takes on the significant of the important time of the significant movement of the African in Harlem, the Introduction also discusses about the lacking of some important work that needed to include in the book, which is claimed by other African American writes. As of all the critics that are stated in the Introduction, I believe that these happened because of the author’s lack of knowledge about the African Americans’ lives in the South, the limited opportunity of sharing his knowledge …show more content…

As the author points out, “joining the faculty at Howard in 1912, he eventually moved from teaching English to teaching philosophy, but was prevented from teaching a subject of increasing importance to him- race, and especially the interaction of races affected by what is called the African diaspora” (Rampersad xi-xii). His limited opportunity of expressing and committing what he is interested in give him limited understanding of the movement of the Africans creating the social change. The third reason that leads to the criticism on his book is his his ignorance of making effort to seeking for the answer for race instead questioning it. As mentioned in the text, “Locke, on the other hand, although unhappy with the Howard administration, had done almost nothing to foment change except to read and reflect on the question of the meaning of race in the twentieth century (Rampersad xii). His unclear answer to race makes looks over the the existence of the blues that it became an important part of the entertainment that Africans succeed in. To conclude, the criticisms of the book The New Negro are mostly distributed by the experience of the author who did not get exposed enough to understand his own race even though he seems to show his

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