See also: “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay – John Green Reads Poetry
John’s related banter…
And, speaking of migration, let us now migrate to the chair for the Mystery Document.
The rules here are simple. I guess the author of the Mystery Document, I’m either right or I get shocked with the shock pen. Alright, let’s see what we got here. (reads poem)
(Screengrab)
Stan, thank you for the poetry, I appreciate that it’s not some obscure document from 18th century blah blah blah. It’s Claude McKay, Harlem Renaissance poet, the poem is called If We Must Die. Ah, it’s the only thing in the world I’m actually good at!
Now I know this from the imagery alone, especially the line about mad and hungry dogs that would figuratively and literally make up the mobs of the lynchings but the giveaway here is the ultimate sentiment that we will fight back. This was part of the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance, which rejected stereotypes and prejudice and sought to celebrate African-American experience.
crashcourse | The Roaring 20’s (Crash Course US History #32)
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
(unquoted section)
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
John Green Reads Poetry 