Upward Mobility

          In both of the texts, The New Negro and The Warmth of Other Suns, an extremely common theme that I think highly contributes to the ideal of a “new negro” has to do with the concept of upward mobility. The poem in The New Negro called “The Black Finger” on page 148 by Angela Grimke has a narrator describing the “most beautiful thing” that she has just seen and it is a person with a finger up in the air and the narrator questions why the finger is black and why it is pointing upwards. Also, the short story in the book that I focus on from the book was a piece about Durham as the place was an uprising of a black middle class (New Negro 333). I think that these two poems, along with the discussion from Monday with our guest speaker, really speak to the story in The Warmth of Other Suns about the upward mobility of Robert Joseph Perishing Foster becoming a great doctor in Los Angeles in the 1950s and making a name for himself.
          In “The Black Finger” poem the narrator is describing this beautiful vision that he or she is seeing yet is questioning why it is black and why it is pointing upwards. I think the narrator is describing a black person, I’m thinking a woman because of the other adjectives that are used, but speaking from and demonstrating the viewpoints of a white voyeur. The narrator is seeing something beautiful happening, an event that is literally unfolding before him or her and I think the person is questioning “why are you black” like dealing with ideals about race and Eugenics like why does this finger, why was this beautiful person born black. The question about the finger pointing upwards makes it as though this white spectator is seeing the unfolding of black people during the great migration and their quest for self worth and dignity in their struggle for equality and upward mobility. I think questioning why the finger is pointing upwards is resonant with a white person asking why this great migration is taking place and why black people are trying to improve their lives and “move on up” yet recognizing that this is a beautiful and important thing.
          Also in The New Negro, the short story “Durham: Capital of Black Middle Class” demonstrates this idea of a black middle class because it is all about black people on a mission to move up the economic, and in this case social, ladder towards a more comfortable life that before. It deals with the new possibilities that come from moving North during the Great Migration that allows for black people to have new and better opportunities. The short story discusses men like John Merrick who was born a slave yet built an empire out a business that he started himself, one that has a lasting effect and legacy that continues through his descendents. What came out of his quest for upward mobility, like the story of Robert in The Warmth of Other Suns, is that their moving enabled them to have new opportunity and make an actual lasting career that not only benefited them and their families but generations to come.
          I thought this idea of upward mobility and new opportunity during the Great Migration for blacks was extremely important to discuss because it introduces how blackpeople became involved in business and actual professions that are still highly regarded and respected to this day that actually counteracts years of racial stereotypes of black people as lazy and stupid and shiftless. Along with our guest speaks discussion of Atlata as this contemporary mecca for black people from all around to move to for a certain middle class respectability and liestyle, all of these readings discuss black people striving for upward mobility and taking advantage of the new opportunities available.