We Still Wear the Mask

We two thoughts, two unconcealed strivings; two

Still warring ideals16
Wear
the What shall we ever do?17
Mask 1
Why are some “too negro”?
Why should I want to be white?18
Years of study under white teachers – 2
They tell me I am not white.3 Enough! Enough! Enough!19
I belong to the race that is cursed with the brand of
slavery – 4 I exist as I am, that is enough,
bearing slavery's scars. 5 If no other in the world be aware I sit content, –
unconscious of the injury I have brought upon my And if each and all be aware I sit content.20
home and my name6 If white people are pleased we are glad –
If they are not, it doesn't matter. 21
A lifetime of white books, pictures, and papers – 7
Nevertheless, men strive to know.8 Democracy will not come
I strive to know.9 Through compromise and fear. 22
I’m done pretending.23
White manners, morals, and puritan standards – 10
with torn and bleeding hearts we smile11 I live here, too. 24
The old subconscious “white is best” runs through I, too, am America. 25
our mind12 Just as you26

I am ashamed too13 We stand on top of the mountain, free within

I fear the strange unwhiteness of my own ourselves.
features14 Without fear or shame
Meaning subconsciously, We know we are beautiful. And ugly too. 27
I want to be white15 We anticipate the day we no longer must wear the
mask –
One feels his twoness, the mask that grins and lies.28

1
Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask” 15
Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”
2
Variation on Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial (1926)
Mountain” (1926) 16
W.E.B. Du Bois, “The souls of Black Folk”
3
Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” 17
T.S. Eliot, “The Waste Land”
(1926) 18
Variation on Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial
4
Variation on Kate Chopin, “Desiree’s Baby” Mountain” (1926)
5
Langston Hughes “Let America Be America Again” 19
Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself” (#38, P.56)
6
Variation on Kate Chopin, “Desiree’s Baby”
7
Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” 20
Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself” (#20, P.38)
(1926) 21
Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”
8
W.E.B. Du Bois, “The souls of Black Folk” (1926)
9
Variation on W.E.B. Du Bois, “The souls of Black Folk” 22
Langston Hughes, “Democracy”
10
Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” 23
Kendrick Lamar, “DAMN” album, song: FEEL.
(1926) 24
Langston Hughes, “Democracy”
11
Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask” 25
Langston Hughes, “I, Too”
12
Variation on Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial 26
Langston Hughes, “Democracy”
Mountain” (1926) 27
Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”
13
Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” (1926)
(1926) 28
Variation on Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask”
14
Variation on Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial
Mountain” (1926)