The Harlem Riot in Harlem Runs Wild by Claude McKay

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Recommended: Claude McKay's Harlem Shadows Essay

The Harlem Riot in Harlem Runs Wild by Claude McKay In Harlem Runs Wild, Claude McKay depicts the Harlem Riot of 1935 as merely "…a gesture of despair of a bewildered, baffled, and disillusioned people." (McKay 224) The Harlem Riot of 1935 was spontaneous and unpremeditated. It was not a race riot in the sense of physical conflict between white and non-white groups as there was little direct violence to white persons. McKay states, "The mass riot in Harlem was not a race riot." (McKay 221) Its distinguishing feature was the persons' attack upon property rather than persons, and resentment against whites that, while exploiting Negroes, denied them an opportunity to work. Communists did not instigate the riot, though they sought to profit by it and circulated a false and misleading leaflet after the riots were well underway. In The Invisible Man, Ras the Destroyer is shown as the primary cause of the riot that breaks out in Harlem. Scofield and Dupre begin to blame the riot on Ras, but change their beliefs and say that it is because of the heat, calling them dog days....

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