Growing up in “The Lynching Era” of American racial tensions, Claude McKay was a politically active writer of various forms of prose and poetry. In 1922, while living in Harlem, McKay wrote The White House; a striking observation of the world around him, and an exploration within his own experience. He uses our assumed understanding of the struggle; he fights the oppressive culture and laws that neither he, nor any representation of his community, enforced by the most violent force of the oppressor class, the police. 

At a time when the black community was discouraged from pursuing education, and was forced to exist as subhuman in the white dominated America, McKay was able to educate himself, and find inspiration and a voice to document the world around him. His experience as a Black man in the 1920’s, during the Harlem Renaissance, is reflected by expressing the frustration, anger, and social and legal inferiority that came, and stills comes with being Black in America; McKay’s poem exists as a timeless lens of the battle for equality, and is relatable to the struggles and unrest we are witnessing in our time. The White House, the poem, is a righteous literary representation of the internal struggle that comes with being Black in a White America.

Being a Black in this White society came, and still comes with struggles and frustrations that I, and many other White Americans can only study and empathize with. For instance, my interactions with police haven’t been enjoyable by any means, but I never feared for my life. As it is today, the police forces of 1922, when Claude McKay wrote his poem, The White House, asserted egregious violations of human rights upon the Black community. There were laws that prevented him from using the front door of a restaurant. He had to enter through the “colored entrance,” an indignity that was meant to demoralize the Black community while giving the White community a feeling of superiority. 

The inequality in education, and housing through “Red Lining” laws were also an intentional institutional indignity that held the Black community back for decades. This is still a problem today. With public school funding being largely allocated through property taxes, it is no surprise that the poorer (and usually Black) neighborhoods receive less materials, and have subpar instructors and facilities. This continues the cycle of poor education, poor employment, poor housing, and poor schools. 

an entire people conditioned to see limited choices from childhood

Conditions have improved with the integration of schools, but Black and Brown children are still held down by their teachers who, on average, suspend them 300% more often than white students for the same infractions, according to National Center for Education Statistics. This creates a mindset of school equals trouble and can impact the child's earning potential, as an adult, for years to come, consequently strengthening inequality. When there is a lack of cultural motivation within a group to finish school, there is a limitation of possibilities for the group as a whole. 

Many of the Black community who grow up in poor, urban areas will witness drugs dealers making more money than those with degrees. The environmental influence to drop out of school is strong, especially when one is getting more severe punishment than their White counterpart for the same infraction. This is part of the cycle that keeps oppressed communities down; an entire people are conditioned to see limited choices from childhood. This systemic conditioning always will lead to a fury that is only quelled through racial justice and equality.

McKay expresses the battle for equality and yearning to exist as a human in White America. When he writes: “And find in it the superhuman power, to hold me to the letter of your law”. He is expressing his frustrations of being a second-class citizen, subject to laws written and enforced by the oppressor-class. During that time in American history, the Black community didn’t have representation in congress; they didn’t have the right to vote. In the line: “The pavement slabs burn loose beneath my feet”. He is referring to marching and protesting for equal rights as promised under the constitution. The pavement burning loose reflects the anger and sentiment of burning down the city just to be heard. 

Following a few lines later, McKay refers to himself as “A chafing savage, down the decent street,” meaning he is unwelcome and possibly feared by those [White] people he passes, or pass him, at the white house; a white house whose “door is shut against [his] tightened face” and is “shuttered”, but made of “glass”. These lines signify how his community being locked out of White America, while they can see the tranquility of life lived by those of the oppressor class.

The White House is a pointedly relevant poem in today’s world because change has only come symbolically. The tearing down of statues and renaming streets and schools is a step forward in acknowledging our racist past, but these are symbolic changes meant to quell a movement and satisfy without benefit. Systemic change on the scale of being revolutionary is what is needed to improve the lives of the oppressed. 

Obama was a big leap forward for the black community, at first. We then saw that the policies he chose to pursue did little to enact either Hope or Change. McKay writes: “And I am sharp as steel with discontent” (line 2), a discontent that has not left the hearts of the Black community. Yes, conditions are pointedly better than they were in the 1920s, but black people still “…must keep [their] heart inviolate, against the potent poison of [white America’s] hate.” (McKay lines 13-14). These lines relate the composure needed to face police officers as a black person, then and now, in America. When these state sanctioned murders are allowed to continue, there is still a “white house” that black America cannot access.

Having historical context in terms of what happened in the 1920s when it comes to racial injustices helps in reading into his words more, and being able to read between the lines. McKay, when he wrote "Oh, I must search for wisdom every hour, Deep in my wrathful bosom sore and raw, And find in it the superhuman power, To hold me to the letter of your law!" is furious at the circumstances imposed on him by the superhuman power of white America's ability to hold his people down. The exclamation point he uses at the end of that stanza reveals his anger, frustration, and confusion. It stands out almost like a question mark, as if to say 'really!?' He goes onto say in the next line "Oh, I must keep my heart inviolate, Against the potent poison of your hate," meaning that he needs to keep his heart safe and secure in the presence of hatred and injustice. 

Keeping safe and secure does not mean passivity, but rather staying firm in your dignity and to unceasingly move forward in the face of opposition; sometimes you have to burn down the city to finally rebuild what is unsafe.

The battle for equality burns as fierce now as it had when McKay wrote The White House, spilling into the modern streets of White America; it has always been a White America. McKay’s reflection of the frustration and anger felt by the black community of the 1920s can be equally as applicable to the frustrations and anger of the black community now. The “pavement slabs burn loose” on streets across the country today, as they had in 1922 when McKay wrote this poem. We have traded water canons for pepper spray, and sit-ins for shutting down freeways. The “shuttered door of glass” is cracking, and we are kicking our way in.