Bop Written By Langston Hughes

• Bop is an exquisite representation of what Langston Hughes is best known for. He is thought of as the primary leader of the Harlem Renaissance, which was a social and cultural movement that mainly took place in the 1920's when the city of Harlem became a mecca for African-American creators, regardless of their chosen art form. In his essay, Bop, Hughes addresses many of the civil inequalities that the Harlem Renaissance brought into question, while still keeping sight of his invention of the iconic art form, jazz poetry. In his piece, Hughes describes a conversation between the narrator, and a supposed friend of the narrator, who goes by the name of Simple. Hughes utilizes first-person perspective throughout the piece in order to give the work an overall feeling of fluency, as well as to make it seem like an active dialogue. The narrator overhears Dizzy Gillespie playing as he passes by, and is invited by Simple to sit down and listen with him. The narrator has very little appreciation for Bop music, much unlike his counterpart who treats Be-Bop music as a religion. Simple explains that  the origin of the music is the struggle of African-Americans, and the embodiment of their culture. Simple directly refers to violent racism that seems almost commonplace to him, "White folks do not get their heads beat just for being white. But me - a cop is liable to grab me almost any time and beat my head - just for being colored,’” (Hughes, pg. 191). Throughout the duration of the essay, Simple continues to shed light on the very obvious racial inequality that occurred at the time that Bop was written, in 1949, but unfortunately still occurs today. In the essay's closing lines, the narrator sympathizes with Simple, leading the readers to do the same, "'Your explanation depresses me,' I said. 'Your nonsense depresses me,' said Simple," (Hughes, pg. 192). He utilizes the rhetorical device known as pathos to get the audience to sympathize with those who are victims of oppression due to race, better achieving his purpose. He does an excellent job communicating the hardships of African-Americans, as well as the artistry that came from this struggle.

When will it stop?: Protesters in Washington D.C. fight for justice after several unarmed African-Americans were murdered at the hands of caucasian police officers. (http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/12/13/washington-justicemarch.html)

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