auty to the people-the beauty within themselves" (Anderson 760).
             Langston Hughes did not often focus on the brutality of American racism as a theme for his poems. A rare instance of the brutality used as a theme for a poem of his is shown in Hughes' poem entitled, "Song for a Dark Girl" (Bloom, "Thematic Analysis Song for Dark Girl 51). Hughes writes:
             The poem is written entirely in the tone of bitter irony. The poem's focus is on violence towards a young black woman, and also on the grief she experiences (52).
             Another social issue which became an important theme in the writing of Langston Hughes was economic justice. Hughes became interested in the subject during the Great Depression of America during the 1930's (Bryant 40). Hughes often traveled extensively due to his participation in complicated, annual lecture tours (Barksdale 515), because of this he often gained knowledge and related and compared black lifestyles and treatment in America to that of other society's treatment of blacks. After visiting Russia for three weeks, having the mind set that socialism would end the issue of economic injustice, Hughes changed his mind, he saw that people were not equal and the government did not do their part to help change that (Bryant 42-43). While visiting France and seeing that the French society as a whole treated him very well and as their equal, Hughes imagined having this sort of freedom and luxury at home in America (28). In Mexico, Hughes saw the same racism that was seen in America. Hughes even saw this prejudiced mind set coming from his own father, an upper-class black man with a prejudiced mind set of his own, who lived in Mexico and had told Langston that there was a less prejudice atmosphere towards African Americans (15).
             Although Hughes did not often focus on the theme of racism in his poetry, he did often focus on the comparison of whites and blacks. Hughes ...