Dignity and Self-Respect

Langston Hughes’ poem I Too illustrates the notions of dignity and determination that are prevalent in The Warmth of Other Suns. I Too challenges the belief of racial inferiority during the Jim Crow era and it demands equality. Equality is not something that will arbitrarily be given to blacks by the white ruling class. Hughes implies that blacks have to stand up against this ruling class if they want to get recognition as equals. More importantly, blacks deserve the opportunity to work as a professional, but the Jim Crow system effectively limited these opportunities. The white ruling class ensured that standards at colored schools were far below white schools. Job opportunities were scarce, and white employers resisted employing educated black persons.   Pershing Foster experiences this when he tries to get a job as a janitor during his summer break, but the white foreman does not offer him the job, since he is going to college. This was done precisely to maintain the balance of power that Hughes emphasizes that we must resist.

The self-respect and determination evoked in I Too are crucial to this resistance. Another key example of this in Pershing’s life occurs when he helps his brother Madison with his practice. We observe that Pershing is glad to help but “he did not want to be a country doctor”. He wanted “the shiny fixtures of a modern hospital and a staff of nurses at his side”. The self-respect that Hughes encourages in his poem is evident in Pershing. The Jim Crow system does not discourage his dreams, so he continues to look for work outside of his brother’s practice. The complete lack of jobs in the South could have forced him to accept a lower position catering only to a colored clientele similar to his brother. The lack of employment coupled with obligations to his wife Alice and their kids encouraged him to move elsewhere. The fresh start in California was the opportunity that Pershing was waiting for and it would eventually allow him to become the respected surgeon he aspired to be.