African American Literature

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African-American Writers on Institutional Racism
African-American literature has come a long way from the abolitionist movement that dealt with slavery to civil rights and contemporary works that deal with institutionalized racism. Institutional racism can be considered as a spillover effect of Jim Crow policies influencing systemic practices, political and economic structures to place minority ethnic groups at a disadvantage. Systemic discrimination through history is apparent through disparities in regards to housing, criminal justice, wealth, employment, education, and healthcare. Institutionalized racism influence African-American writers to incorporate several tactics and subject matter in their works to handle its impact. They use black characters and promote African American traits and semantic to enrich the status of the race amidst the prejudiced climate. Works such as Langston Hughes’ Harlem and Toni Morrison’s Sweetness address the issues and limitations black people face due to institutional racism. African-American writers have been at the forefront of tackling systemic racism by identifying and challenging its impact in their writings to promote progressive discourse, as institutionalized prejudice receives minimal public criticism.
In Harlem, Hughes addresses how the dreams of black people are silenced by the presence of institutionalized racism. Hughes wrote the poem at a time when de jure segregation was still in play …