A scene from Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raising In the Sun (1961).
Travis tightly and tells him, “Bless your heart –this is the
prettiest hat I ever owned” (Hansberry 124). She nurtures
the spirit in which the gift was given. Moreover, the gifts of
gardening tools and hat symbolize the family’s recognition
of Mama’s dreams, which include having a home with a
garden. The family’s collective acknowledgment of her
desires represents the fierce love and respect for others that
are essential to survival, especially for the Youngers who
face an uncertain future when they move into Clybourne
Park at the end of the play.
Although Hansberry “wrote [A Raisin in the Sun] in
response to a racist performance” of a play about Blacks,
protest in her own work manifests not in expressions of
despair or anger but in moments of pleasure, love, and
communion. (Bernstein 20). As Mama reminds Beneatha
after she expresses her disdain for Walter and his apparent
decision to take Mr. Lindner’s money in exchange for
not moving into a White neighborhood: “There is always
something left to love.” (Hansberry 145). Mama speaks
here of the “hard love” that Baldwin refers to in The Fire
Next Time: “Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot
live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word
‘love’ here not merely in the personal sense but as a state
of being, or a state of grace – not in the infantile American
sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal
sense of quest and daring and growth.” (Baldwin 95). As
both Baldwin and Hansberry express, love requires a fierce
spirit and a commitment to embracing the full range of
humanity: ours and that of others.
Though both Baldwin and Hansberry demonstrate a politics
of love in these two works, neither was a naïve idealist.
Their own experiences with poverty, racism, sexism,
and homophobia would not allow it. Yet, their belief in
the transformative power of love as a weapon against
dehumanization united them. It is not the “turn the other
cheek” love of Dr. King but rather a hard, tough, and daring
love that is rooted in a deep esteem for one’s right to be
fully human. Their spirit reminds me not to give into the
temptation of despair and encourages me to embrace joy as
a mode of protest in a world that fears not only Black anger,
but also Black pleasure.
african Voices
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