(Spotify-Friendly!) Episode Ten, Part I: Righteous Anger and Langston Hughes “The Colored Soldier”

*This is not a new episode-it's just in a different format for my Spotify people! This is my most downloaded episode, and one that is very closely related to the ongoing racism that is an ugly legacy of United States history.

 

 

 

In this episode, Pete explores the festering and righteous and justified anger felt by many over the continued oppression of African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement and society as a whole. This anger is made visible through a close read of Langston Hughes’ incredibly-powerful poem, “The Colored Soldier,” in which he talks to his brother, killed in France in WWI, in a dream.

 

Authors Mentioned and Allusions and Songs Referenced During the Episode:

"Teaching the American 20s," Online Materials for K-12 Educators-information about racial violence inflicted about returning African-American WWI veterans

Rage Against the Machine’s “Freedom”-with “Anger is a gift” lyrics

Song at beginning and end of episode: “Wicked” (Instrumental) by Ice Cube