Tyler Kuan
The Fine Line that Separates Us
During the Harlem Renaissance, people of color, especially African Americans, dealt with
the constant struggle of racism. This discrimination by the color of skin perpetuated the division
of citizens. In response, people of color sought ways to take a stand against racism. Claude
McKay uses his poetic work to remind the Black community of the harsh reality of racism to
motivate them to fight back by utilizing the strategic use of pronouns and multiple vivid,
powerful metaphors to emphasize the unspoken inequality everyone felt.
In the poem “If We Must Die,” McKay uses conflicting pronouns and vivid metaphors to
highlight the cruelty of racist America. McKay uses pronouns to emphasize a “them vs. us” to
further separate the two races. By alienating the Whites from the Blacks, he draws attention to
