Mapping the New Negro

In doing a close reading of both Baldwin and Locke's caricature's of the New Negro, I saw both some similarities and some differences. Both Baldwin and Locke see the new Negro as an architect of an entirely new lifestyle. Both authors encourage the new Negro to be archaic, dynamic, and revolutionary but in different ways.  Locke describes the new Negro as an artist, creator, poet, and progressive. He celebrates the 'renaissance' occuring in Harlem and regards the New Negro as a rebirth of art, music, culture and modernist thinking. The New Negro, Locke states, "exudes more than just energy- [he] exudes a quality suspiciously like joy, the great quality that J.A. Rogers sees in Jazz. The energy and joy in The New Negro have political purposes; they are subversive, and thus come tinged with a quality not unlike a thrilling psychological neuroticism, which serves to authenticate the modernist identity of the New Negro." (Locke xxii). In contrast,  Baldwin starts off with the analysis of Jack Johnson, the black heavyweight champion of the time. Baldwin feels that Johnson encompasses everything the New Negro identity should be comprised of. Not only did Johnson regularly challenge black social norms and white hegemony, his actions served to galvanize the entire black population of Chicago. Using Johnson as an example for the greater black community, Baldwin writes, "Placing the Johnson story within the black context crystallizes how he did more than challenge Social Darwinism but, in the words of historian Jeffrey Simmons, 'foreshadowed, and in some ways helped create, the New Negro" (Baldwin 4-5) Another quality that Baldwin emphasizes over Locke is the boldness and entreprenuerial spirit of the New Negro. According to Baldwin, the New Negro should exemplify bravery and risk-taking. He should not be afraid to disrupt social norms, especially those in line with white hierarchal infrastructure. Locke does have similar ideas about a certain fearlessness that the New Negro should have, but leans more towards using an artistic medium as a form of expressing it. A bold attitude and fresh way of thinking typify both what Locke and Baldwin think they New Negro should be, but  they differ in the idea of what can or should be used as a catalyst for achieving such successes.