Cross

A poem by Langston Hughes

My old man's a white old man

and my old mother's black 

If ever I cursed my white old man 

I take my curses back 

if ever I cursed my black old mother 

and wished she were in hell 

I'm sorry for that evil wish 

and now I wish her well 

my old man died in a fine big house 

my ma died in a shack 

I wonder where I'm gonna die 

being neither white nor black.

Langston Hughes was born to parents of mixed races but in this poem, he assumes the persona of someone with a white father and black mother. With that, Hughes conveys a message of helplessness. Being a half black and half white, he doesn't know where his place is, or where to fit in.  He takes back any contempt he's had against either of his parents, as there isn't much else to do. Being white, his father lived his life and died in a "fine big house" while his mother died in a shack. This insinuates the vastly different lives they lived, one filled with comfort and ease and the other with strife and hardships. Hughes than wonders, what's to happen to him, being from both sides. It was a real issue years ago. "Mulattos" or one with mixed ancestry faced discrimination by both blacks and white and were often stunk in a social limbo.