Woodson and Langston Hughes

Could I be called lazy if I take my own sweet time reading the last chapter of a novel? Would some call me a procrastinator for such behavior or would some just lament what they would consider my slow reading skills? The real reason is, as my sister-in-law would off’time say, “I does not know”.

The problem is reading “Not without laughter”, the only novel written by the famous poet Langston Hughes. This is my second reading of the novel and I am just as engaged as I was the first time reading it, perhaps more so. I note there is less writing in the margin of pages which I can not account for. Perhaps it is a story for another time.

What happened to me was after reading a few pages of Mr. Hughes’ novel, the narrative became a continuation of the thesis “The Mis-education of the Negro” written by Dr. Carter G. Woodson. In my opinion, Mr. Hughes has written a sequel to The Mis-education and for some un-explainable reason, I don’t want to leave either of them. I think the two readings go together like peaches and cream and I don’t want to say I am finished with things they wrote about  and  become confused again as to what has happened to us as a race. I don’t want to once again face the meanness of whites that has now gone global. Reading about their treatment of us Blacks is one thing but confronting it day-to-day is another can of worms.

Sooner or later, maybe this evening or the evening after,  I will re-read the last pages of “Not without laughter” and realize once again we now have our first Black President and the way he is being treated. That’s reality. (Sigh)

Fighting for the dignity of my Ancestors,
God bless Bill Gates, WPFW, C-SPAN and the spirits of the unborn for the help,
BB