Color Barriers in The Theme for English B by Langston Hughes Essay

Through many civilizations, a culture arises as a dominant force that is seen with majority of power and influence. This dominant culture is able to affect subordinate cultures through its influential economic or political power--to impose its values, language, and ways of behaving. This imposition leads to social barriers between different cultures including racism and economic differences, as one culture is seen as superior over another. In history, social barriers have been established across the world; in America, there were segregation laws and the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr., a civil rights activist, wrote the speech â€Å"I Have a Dream,† during a time of segregation of blacks and whites in America. The speech addresses the issues of racism as a barrier in culture, which is supposed to bring equality and inclusion to everyone. In the poem â€Å"The Theme for English B† by Langston Hughes, the author discusses the influence of dominant cu lture on a colored person in a school. Race is an aspect of dominant culture and the color of your skin is a barrier between dominant culture and lesser cultures, and it can be overcome by the use of education. Race is an aspect of dominant culture as it is a prejudgment of people’s classes and social standards by the assessment of their skin color. In â€Å"The Theme for English B† the author of the poem talks about dominant culture in a school setting from a colored student’s point of view. The colored student feels that separation of the school is a sign of dominant culture: â€Å"I went to school there, then Durham, then here to this college on the hill above Harlem. I am the only colored student in my class† (Hughes). The student feels isolated from the group because of h... ...rson to be more than can be imagined and this leads to acceptance and equality in cultures. In conclusion, race is an aspect of dominant culture and is a social barrier that can be broken through the use of education. In the narrative poem, â€Å"The Theme of English B† by Langston Hughes, it talks about the social barriers in education systems like colleges. Race can bring people together and also keep groups apart as cultures as another culture is seen to be more superior to the other. To stop segregation and splitting between groups education can be used to build one dominant culture that includes everyone for what they are made of and not by person’s race. Martin Luther King saw that race was an issue and believed bringing cultures together brought to light a solution of uniting groups together under one dominant culture of being separated by social barriers.