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Why did some writers worry about white publishers and patrons supporting Black art?

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The Weary Blues cover — Harlem Renaissance Dust jacket designed by the Mexican illustrator and writer Miguel Covarrubias for Langston Hughes's *The Weary Blues* (1926), a book of experimental poetry.

During the Harlem Renaissance, some Black intellectuals and writers expressed concern regarding the influence of white publishers and patrons on Black art. A primary fear, notably voiced by W.E.B. Du Bois, was that white editors and readers would steer Black authors toward an "empty aestheticism" or encourage the production of work centered on salacious modes of "primitivism" to satisfy white curiosity.1

This anxiety was fueled by the popularity of the "Negro Vogue," where white audiences were often drawn to exoticized or stereotypical depictions of Black life. The commercial success of novels like Carl Van Vechten’s Nigger Heaven seemed to validate these fears, suggesting that white-controlled markets prioritized works that reinforced damaging stereotypes over more nuanced or psychologically complex representations of the Black experience. Additionally, some critics, such as George Schuyler, dismissed the entire concept of a distinct "Negro art" as "hokum" that was artificially stimulated by white decadents. These concerns highlighted a fundamental tension regarding whether white patronage ultimately supported authentic self-expression or led the movement astray by commodifying Black identity.21