RESISTENSI DAN RESPON ETNIK AFRO-AMERIKA ATAS MARJINALISASI ETNIK ANGLO-AMERIKA DALAM PUISI-PUISI KARYA HUGHES

Abstract

This study aims to describe the forms of and responses to racial hegemony and the
Afro-American ethnic group’s self-identity in Hughes’s poems. It employed the qualitative
descriptive approach. The data sources were Hughes’s poems entitled “I, Too, Sing
America”, “Let America be America Again”, and “Theme for English B”. The data were
analyzed by means of the postcolonialism theory, enriched by historical, socio-cultural,
and political information during the post-civil-war era till 1960s in the United States of
America. The findings are as follows. First, racial hegemony appears in the form of the
negative stereotype of the Afro-American ethnic group. The negative stereotype leads
to the marginalization of the Afro-American ethnic group, reflected by the injustice
and tyranny by the majority ethnic group. Second, responses to racial hegemony are
manifested in the Afro-American ethnic group’s awareness of dignity, self-esteem, and
self-confidence as foundations to demand equality and to show their existence amid the
white people ethnic group’s domination. Third, the pride of ethnic identity is actually a
potential to realize Amerian ideals as a nation highly respecting equality and diversity
as aspired by the founding fathers.