New Negro
Alain Lockes essay the "New Negro" written in 1925, serves to contrast the old Negro in America prior to the Harlem Renaissance with the New Negro that started emerging in the 1920s. ... The first part of the New Negro explains how the New Negro is coming into existence and the three norms which are the Sociologist, the Philanthropist and the Race-leader doesnt know where they are evolving from. When he refers to New Negro he is referring to the new generation of African Americans. Then, Locke goes on to question if there is really such thing as an Old Negro and New Negro. He refers to the Old Negro as "a myth rather than a man. ... Because of this the New Negro was brought up to have the same attitude. ... Locke recalls the Negro spirituals. ... He considers the New Negro to be the thinking Negro. The New Negro realizes that we are to blame as much as the whites are to blame. ... "The New Negro has been revived with courage, renewed with self-respect and self-dependence." Locke states that the life of the New Negro is compelled to enter a new and improved phase. ... This movement made the Negro problem national instead of confined in the South. ... Then he compares Harlems significance for the New Negro as Dublin was significant to the New Ireland and as Prague was for the New Czechoslovakia. ... Locke then discussed how the Old Negro had certain issues that needed to be smashed. He says that the Old Negro has used the way he has been treated as an excuse for him not to succeed. ... On the other hand the New Negro has decided not to use discrimination as an excuse for his lack of success. ... Locke then explains that in order to accomplish this, the New Negro must know and understand himself. ... Locke questions that if the Negro were better known would he be better liked or better treated. ... Locke suggests that the New Negro is now being seen as a sign of a new democracy.