Intro. to "Black Metropolis"

I was given two assigned readings for my English II class with the instruction to develop a blog on one of the two, expressing my initial reactions to the piece and discussing whatever else I found important about it. I chose to write on the second assigned piece, as indicated in the title. The introduction mentions discusses the writers' motivation behind the text, the writers being a Richard Wright, a St. Clair Drake, and a Horace R. Clayton, all African-American gentlemen living in Chicago in the post-WWII era, though only very shortly after such.

What interested me most was the constant use of paradoxical, opposing language... Constant mention of black vs. white, life vs. death, and other 'opposites' to set the tone for the work, with it being focused on how prejudice still plays an integral role and will continue to do so not only in terms of 'black vs. white' but on a much larger scale. Firstly the writers define their perspective of the city of Chicago during that time, with an "...open and raw beauty... that seems to either kill or endow one with the spirit of life." Even in that sentence, at the very beginning of the text, one can see the blending of opposites, which -- in that certain section of the text -- goes on to define Chicago as a city both impersonal and personal, complete with the unfeeling machine-aspect of industry that the city is so well known for and the emotional worker behind it. The theme of opposites continue, with the main writer saying, "... I found that sincere art and honest science were not far apart..." And, quite honestly, at this part of the essay the writer has moved on from discussing the city to the general understanding of Negro life... Just the same, there is a slight comparison between the city and the African-American population of Chicago that never is really made distinct.

I wish that I could go on further. I made so many more connections with how opposites defines the 'Negro' and his chosen city, the machine of class distinction and the industrial Chicago in general, that I could go on for far longer than 200-250 words... I mean, the writer throws so many polar opposites into one sentence so flawlessly that I sit amazed when the picture is still so clear, and then much later when he/they go on to, in a way, glorify Hitler... Really, it's a stunning piece of work.

I mean, why would a black man, in post-WWII society, choose to go to Chicago? I could not get that thought out of my head throughout the entire essay, and then my very question was answered in a beautiful way... Though the city of Chicago is so machinated, industrial, unfeeling, it allows someone to go toward that sense of unguaranteed success with the same freedom as that of a white man, of someone without boundaries and enslavement. It is simply free will that makes it so appealing.

I wish that I could go on! But, I guess I'll have to stop it there.