Langston hughes

In the Article, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain", Langston Hughes talks about African American artists and how view themselves and their work. In the beginning of the article Hughes starts out by saying a fellow poet, stated that he wish he were a White poet. His friend stated he wanted to write like a white poet.  Hughes was ashamed and felt sorry for the young man. Hughes thinks that African American's should embrace their race and spirituality. Hughes understood that middle class African American families grew up with their parents telling them to act like the white children, and that's why these young artists wanted to be like the white artists. Hughes states that it would be hard to embrace your own beauty if you were brought up in a house where you were said to act like white people. They were brought up thinking there was something wrong with the way they were, which is a wrong interpretation. Artists who create racial art would have a very high mountain to climb, but African American artists choose to not even try and climb this "mountain". Hughes, however, said that there are some common people of color who embrace their race and their spirituality; these are the artists Hughes likes. The conflict between the African American artists is a conflict within themselves. They need to express themselves and write about what they want to write about and not worry about what others think. He finishes up the article by saying once again he is ashamed of the African American artist who wants to be like white artists.  Hughes wants the African American artists to find beauty in their race, create art and stand by their art.