Blog 2: McKay, Poster, and Utopia

This post will consider this poster in relation to the autobiographical account of Claude McKay about his visit to the Soviet Union.

While in Moscow, McKay experiences an affirmation of his identity so powerful that he believes it bears no parallel in his life. Unlike the experience of black Americans in the U.S. where segregation especially in the South was still rampant, the political liberation of the black people was a dream obscured by haze, and institutionalized racism sought to denude them of the simple dignity of being, here in Moscow, McKay finds for the first that his blackness of skin was not a hindrance to the affirmation of his self. Instead, it was an overwhelmingly positive influence. He remarks how “whenever (he) appeared in the street (he) was greeted by all of the people with enthusiasm”. He describes his reception by the people as “miraculous” and emphasizes that he felt like “a black icon”. The Soviet assertion of the equality of all peoples and the novelty of experiencing acceptance of oneself, denied so long and culminating in a new happiness, ties together the grand political claim to the joyful moment of one heart.

The poster shows a black person in red clothes, probably a frock, bearing a flag and harkening the multitude upon which he, it seems, emerges like a charismatic apparition towards the cause of freedom. It is worth noting that while the leader is black, the following multitude is composed of different races; white-skinned people with blonde heads are visible, other black-skinned people too are there. Flags and banners bearing inscriptions in various languages show how this enterprise towards freedom concerns and involves all nationalities. But the figure dominating is that of a black person. This is an act of conferring agency, not simply one of involving a traditionally marginalized group in the struggle on equal footing, but, radically, in a position of power, authority, and leadership. Light rays emerge from behind the central figure, as if they were the sun, giving out the light of hope and dreams. The figure is a “black icon in the flesh”. It is this sense of not simply acceptance but celebration of being black which elates McKay which this poster is able to capture. “Never in my life did I feel prouder of being an African, a black, and no mistake about it,” says McKay.

The position of the central figure as above the masses resembles McKay’s “unforgettable” experience of being “physically uplifted”. But both are slightly different. In the poster the artist aimed to make a serious statement, where duty and loyalty to a high aim animates the characters. McKay’s experience, as he relates it has on the surface little to do with this conscious aim. It is spontaneous, almost euphoric. Perhaps this different is attributable to the sense of sudden and complete dignity which McKay experienced, even as he took care to not explicitly align himself with the Soviet state.The poster also captures the naturalness and spontaneity of McKay’s experience. McKay describes it as “a spontaneous upsurging of folk feeling”. The following multitude in the poster also seems to be energized by a single emotion, but here curiously the blackness of the central figure is not something taken as remarkable by them. The blackness of McKay’s skin was the motivator of this emotion. Here, that blackness seems not to matter, understandably so since this is a utopian vision. This difference perhaps represents the gulf towards freedom and equality which the Soviet Union saw itself as trying to build a bridge across.