TOW #9 - "Bop"

I read "Bop" by Langston Hughes this week, and I'm not going to lie; it was a pretty difficult text to analyze. The further you look into it, the more complex it becomes. The whole story centers around race and it showcases how different thing were in the 1950s. It first depicts two people sitting on a stoop listening to music emphasizing the word 'bop' as in the word often used in 'scatting'. The singer uses it over and over again, alternating in different variations like 're-bop' and 'be-bop', which catalyzes an argument between the two people. One asks, "What's the difference, between Re and Be?" where the other responds, "A lot, Re-Bop was an imitation like most of the white boys play. Be-Bop is the real thing like the colored boys play." This exchange starts the theme for the rest of the essay; how race was such a touchy subject during the time period. The second person in the quote explains how being a black man means receiving much different treatment just by walking through a white neighborhood. I found it really interesting how similar some of the incidences we see on the news today were found during the civil right's movement decades ago, and it really got me thinking: how much has really changed? Why does everything think we have 'come so far' in our nation-wide acceptance of people of color? To top it all off, Hughes ends with the one person saying "Your explanation depresses me," and the other saying, "Your nonsense depresses me," which I think is so crucial in showing his purpose. You cannot just push an important issue aside because it's a sad subject, or it's difficult to deal with.