Dubois brought a new elementary understanding of the subject art and beauty. Dubois understanding of beauty is not that which is seen by the beholder, but the beauty that appeals to the universal, classical trans-historical in nature. Dubois major question and wonder as to who will translate and interpret the description of beauty. According to Dubois, the Blacks comprising of the African-Americans are tasked with the duty to describe and create a new understanding to the discussions about beauty to its contextual understanding. Dubois calls upon the Blacks to take a central role in the appreciation and the recreation of art as means of communication, going by the historical prejudice they have faced over the years.
“Pushed aside as we have been in America, there has come to us not only certain distaste for the tawdry and flamboyant but a vision of what the world could be if it were a beautiful world.” (Du Bois, 299)
Dubois emphasized the relevance of art as a means of propaganda in getting audience towards securing freedom and equality for the black race. Dubai’s feelings are that art, through music, drawing and painting, dances and movies should be directed towards securing the equal right for all. He encourages the blacks to use art as a mouthpiece in the projection of the call and demands against open infringement on people’s rights.
“I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda.” (Sugrue, n.p)
Dubois’ concern with the way the art of blacks will be judged is evident. He agrees that through art, the message of equality and the calls for equal right will reach the targeted ears. However, he is skeptical about how other non-blacks will perceive their art. He is fully aware of the potential similarities between the arts that are produced by the blacks and that which is produced by the non-black races in America. It is on this principle cases that Dubois, therefore, calls for uniqueness in the arts that emanates from the black quarters. Dubois calls on the black artists to create an art that does not only carry the weight of the black elements in it, but the adequate message on the calls for right and weight on the African-American art by itself should adequately bring out the message to the public.
“I do not doubt that the ultimate art coming from black folk are going to be just as beautiful, and beautiful largely in the same ways, as the art that comes from white folk, or yellow, or red; but the point today is that until the art of the black folk compels [sic] recognition they will not be rated as human.” (Du Bois, 293)
Harlem Renaissance created a firm and memorable literary and historical artistic histories that define the cultural orientation for the black race to date. In the 1920s, Harlem and the new Negro movement was a term not new to the ears of both the whites and the blacks. Gates and Jarrett provides an in-depth introduction to the Renaissance including ‘the art if propaganda, literature, and history.’ The Negro societies were known for their prowess and eloquence in the arts of music, spiritual awareness, Jazz, and theatre. The Renaissance provides a collection of the African and the general race culture as they entered the western world.
The Black American understanding of the cultural tradition, “genteel tradition,” was a close follow-up to the uplifting of the African American tradition that is followed up with the criticism of the modernization of the all cultural elements. This modernism is followed up by drastic and severe cultural and racial segregation. Therefore, it is the place of the blacks to use the same art to propagate for the freedom and the equality in all spheres and aspects of life under any society. The advocates for equality between the blacks and the whites in the contemporary American society fought a devastating war coupled with open discrimination and open violation of the rights of the blacks by their American counterparts. According to Watson, Steven, The blacks, ’negro’ society had to use divergent means of creating awareness and fight against blatant infringement on their right. The best way of doing this at that point and time was by the use of art, creating songs that would not only be popular amongst the black society but would penetrate to the white community as well. The leadership of the black race was under immense pressure to protect the lives and the image of the black race against the popular minority notion that was slowly but steadily gaining popularity across the globe.
There was an acute imbalance in the fine arts section. There was the notion of a break in the linkage between the African and the black-American arts in their fineness. Locke claims that the African art is quite formalized and rather constrained rather that exuberant and engaging in rather a bare-knuckles kind of situation. There is a constant plea for the African black painters to forge their imaginative art that speaks on their behalf concerning the challenges that they face, rather than copy the European art that is rather limited to communication and the ideas.
The role of the black artists in determining and fighting forthright so the black race cannot be negated due to its prominence. The black artists should be the mouthpiece in their right to communicate against the evils that are propagated against their own in the society (Watson, n.p). The black artists should create style, braveness and uniqueness in their artisanship to bring out the challenges that the racial segregation has brought on the suffering and the mistreatment of the black race in the American society.
Dubois opines that The Negro movements gained recognition amongst both the blacks and the white race, through the mutual recognition of the existing racial problems.
They are whispering, "Here is a way out. Here is the real solution to the color problem. The recognition accorded Cullen, Hughes, Fauset, White and others shows there is no real color line. Keep quiet! Don't complain! Work! All will be well!”
There emerged a clique of whites who were willing to be part of the solution through joining the blacks’ art concerts, copying and spreading the African-American dances such as ‘salsa, jazz music, soul music and drawings.’ The number of white race musicians who joined the forays into fighting of equality and the common rights for all increased drastically from the period 1920s to the time when there rise in awareness of human rights crusade was at its peak.
Works cited
Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. "Criteria of Negro art." Crisis 32.6 (1926): 290-297.
Sugrue, Thomas J. The origins of the urban crisis: Race and inequality in postwar Detroit. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Watson, Steven. The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African-American Culture, 1920-1930. New York: Pantheon Books, 1995.
