Three Poems by Langston Hughes for Election Day Eve

By: Alexis Shoats

On the eve of election day, it is hard not to feel hopeful yet anxious. It has felt like an endless cycle of elections with Trump at the top of the Republican ticket, will it all finally end on Tuesday? I truly hope so. This election has come with its fair share of issues and hopeful moments. From the genocide happening in Gaza, and the curtains being lifted on Israel’s “democracy” or better stated Apartheid State. To the transition from President Joe Biden a white man, the son of Scranton, Pennsylvania to Vice President Kamala Harris, a Black and South Asian descent woman, and daughter of Oakland, California. Becoming only the second and first Black woman to be at the top of the Democratic ticket. Vice President Harris has endured disgusting and hateful attacks based on race and gender. As well as expected call out by progressives and leftists on her shifts in policies, and the refusal of the Biden-Harris administration to impose an arms embargo on Israel. 

It is hard to say this election isn’t about the two politicians at the top of the ticket, but it truly shouldn’t be. Nor should any election. Every election must be about the people. It must be about electing a leader you can trust to create change or push to pass meaningful policies. For many of us that begins with the genocide in Gaza ending and the United States' immediate and permanent decision to stop supplying Israel with weapons and full support. Will that happen under a Harris administration? We don’t know. However, we know that under a Trump administration, marginalized groups will suffer, and more women will die without proper reproductive care. We must make a political climate that allows us to push politicians to do everything in their power to fix the longstanding issues in this country and the harm our country creates abroad. 

Sunday evening, I reflected on what it means to channel out the noise and make a conscious effort to push for change. As minorities, we’ve been doing this for decades. Never fully having our own piece of the pie without stipulations. I hope one day this changes, and we can have the full piece of the pie. In the interim, I've meditated on what this currently looks like. Three poems by Langston Hughes came to me – America, I Too, and Dreamer.

Two stanzas in America speak to the hope we feel in this moment. 

America – the dream

America – the vision. 

America – the star-seeking I.

Out of yesterday

The chains of slavery;

Out of yesterday,

The ghettos of Europe;

Later in the poem he states,

Today’s black mother bearing tomorrow’s America.

Who am I?

You know me,

Dream of my Dreams,

I am America.

I am America seeking the stars.

America –

Hoping, praying

Fighting, dreaming.

Knowing

There are stains 

On the beauty of my democracy,

I want to be clean.

I want to grovel

No longer in the mire.

I, Too was chosen because it speaks to the bigotry and racism in this country. Hughes pokes a hole right in the argument of who is American and who isn’t. 

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes, 

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I’ll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody’ll dare 

Say to me,

“Eat in the kitchen,”

Then.

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed –

I, too, am America. 

Dreamer was chosen because it speaks to our collective and individual dreams. Our silent prayers before bed and before we start our days. Our hope to live out our own wildest dreams. That our dreams become tangible. That our dreams come to fruition in a more just world. That our dreams are not carried out at the demise of another marginalized group. That our dreams dismantle each system of oppression. That these dreams create a true democracy. 

I take my dreams 

And make of them a bronze vase,

And a wide round fountain

With a beautiful statue in its center,

And a song with a broken heart,

And I ask you:

Do you understand my dreams? 

Sometimes you say you do

And sometimes you say you don’t.

Either way

It doesn’t matter.

I continue to dream.