Poem Analysis: To America By James Weldon Johnson

The poem titled “To America” by James Weldon Johnson is about a man that is asking if people of color will ever be accepted as who they are or if they will just be seen as a tool that people can use to get a higher step up in life. This person is truly wondering and questioning if racism will come to an end or if like he says “sinking ‘neath the load we bear?” (line 2) They just want to know if they will ever be accepted. This poem is about racism and how people of color have been treated in the past and how they will be treated in the future. This poem is really questioning the ability of Americans to accept everybody and to treat them as just another person because at this time in the history of America it is very hard for people of color to fit in and to just do things that everybody else could do. The person in this poem feels like personally they were not treated like an actual person but instead they were just treated like an object that people could use and treat terribly. This poem feels like it could be a call to action for all Americans and calling them out for what they have done in the

It looks like America in 2018 is starting to get back to the time of which this poem was written and people need to and have started to call people out for being racist and treating people like they are less than you. If we have another Harlem Renaissance like time period that didn’t necessarily have to take place just in one city or part of a city then America could go back to everybody being friendly to one another and they wouldn’t feel like they are chained down and enslaved like it says in the poem “Or tightening chains about your feet?” (line 8). This means that the people of this time were were not happy with what was happening and the people of the present are not happy with what is going on