Question

In her essay "What White Publishers Won’t Print," Zora Neale Hurston argues that publishers will not print stories about educated minorities because readers will not believe that these people even exist. Would the person that Countee Cullen describes in his poem "For a Lady I Know" be similar to the kind of reader Hurston writes about?

Answer 1

Hurston and Cullen both address the issue of racial discrimination in their literary works. They describe the conceited and condescending attitude of white Americans toward minority races, especially African Americans. These writers felt that white Americans not only considered themselves superior to African Americans but also thought that African Americans were incapable of having intellectual and creative skills.In her essay "What White Publishers Won’t Print" Hurston describes how Anglo-Saxons think that they know everything about African Americans and show no interest in learning anything about their "internal lives and emotions." She emphasizes how white Americans have formed certain common stereotypes regarding nonwhite Americans, which is why they fail to comprehend and appreciate the true skills of African Americans and other racial minorities:I have been amazed by the Anglo-Saxon's lack of curiosity about the internal lives and emotions of the Negroes, and for that matter, any non-Anglo-Saxon peoples within our borders, above the class of unskilled labor.Similarly, in his poem "For a Lady I Know," Cullen emphasizes the arrogant and self-important attitude that white Americans have toward African Americans. He uses imagery of cherubs in heaven to describe how a lady belonging to the upper class thinks that her "poor black" servants would wait on her even after death. Cullen shows that people from the upper class (white Americans) believe that Africans Americans can never have a bright future.From her superior attitude toward African Americans, it is clear that the lady that Cullen describes in his poem could belong to the group of readers who would not be interested in reading stories about educated minorities.

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

Yes, the person described by Cullen in his poem will be similar to the kind of reader Hurston writes about.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the essay by Zora Neale Hurston, she argues that many White publishers failed to write about the Black minorities, thus masking useful insight and knowledge of these people from the world.

In Cullen's poem, he writes about a certain White woman who believes that there would be class distinction even in heaven. While the whites sleep and snore, the slaves wake up to do the chores. This woman has a lopsided view of minorities. Similarly, the readers who would not even believe in the existence of minorities hold a lopsided view of them.