“Cross” by Langston Hughes

The persona in the poem “Cross” by Langston Hughes brings some issues of identification and racial prejudice.

The persona is frustrated of his identity. He is a child of a rich white man and a poor black woman. He is a “halfbreed” person that suffered abuse from both blacks and whites since he didn't fully belong to either race.

The poem is the representative of the mindset and segregation of races during Langston Hughes times, it implies that the persona battled with identity and blaming his parents. The persona could not heritage what his rich father have but to suffer the life of black society. The death of the persona’s  parents tell the difference of the privilege and poverty of the multiracial society. Langston Hughes is trying to convey the state of racial ambiguity that mixed race people feel.

Times are changing and world is becoming more and more integrated now. Multiracial society is very common in Malaysia. There are new generations with mixed races, religions and cultural background. Thus this poem is suitable in Malaysian’s literature classroom. Some mixed race people nowadays are proud of their identity as they have more heritage and benefits from different races. They have chances to learn another culture or religion. They can learn a new language easily.

The most challenging issue in multiracial society is the adaptation and integration of different races. Thus, “respect” is a great lesson to be learnt. Our students should be taught the value of respect to different races.

As a teacher, I always come to children from interracial families. Take my class for example, I have a student with a Chinese father and a Murut mother. The other has a Melanau father and a Chinese mother. I found that their language proficiency is better than the others. They can speak Bahasa Malaysia well. This is because they have more practice on this language at home. I always tell them that they are lucky as they can learn more different languages and cultures.  Sometimes, they help in my teaching too. I seek translation of words in their language, and use them in some of my induction sets. The other students think it is funny to learn new things.

My conclusion, not matter what races are we, we should appreciate what we have and live our time in great meaning.