Langston Hughes Democracy
According to the video, power is not given but fought for through democracy. Through the formation of Women’s associations and Women’s Political Party, women will have power. From Langston Hughes’s poem, the images used in the video are symbolically placed to give insights about power and freedom, especially for women. From the images, it is clear that liberty and equality for women must be fought for. For instance, an image of people resembling protesters holds a signboard reading “Dream Act Now.” In this sense, the video has addressed the concept of power through political freedom and equality. The images reflect this claim because most of the pictures include elected women Senators and House Representatives. An example, we have Senator Tammy Duckworth, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, and Representative Barbara Lee. Also, the power has been addressed through equality of men and women that why the poem’s second line says that women have rights like other fellows. Considerably, the poem has presented democracy and justice regardless of color by applying the tone of freedom. The poem is considering rights and liberties as a citizen of America without looking at the color or gender. Based on racism, African Americans are isolated by the majority of whites, where society has embraced Black as the second class of people.
Additionally, the image of the National Woman’s Party, founded in 1913, shows that if women want power, they should fight for their rights in politics. These ideas bring us to women’s democracy and power as an overall message of the video in connection to the context of women’s anniversary. Even though there are no direct words in the poem alluding that women need freedom, the images in the video are political women. Symbolically, the poem has used imagery and metaphor to underline the critical concept of freedom and power. For instance, “I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread” is a metaphor showing that people are tired of unfulfilled promises. Therefore, women in the video images are used symbolically to show that Hughes’s targeted audience is women.