Discuss the implied threat in both Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" and Langston Hughes' "Harlem."

The idea of a "threat" is interesting.  I do not think
that each specific thinker would use the term, but the idea in each is present.  For
Hughes, the closing image of "Or does it explode," causes a unsettling moment for the
reader.  It brings to light that constant deferral of dreams cannot carry socially or
personally positive consequences  The implications of this on a larger scale is a call
for White America to view the manner in which it defers the dreams of people of color,
specifically Black Americans.  At the same time, it is an exploration as to how people's
cruelty to one another can carry profound implications.  This is part of the same idea
that Dr. King holds in his speech.  The need to call out for a change is the fundamental
premise of the work.  Within this, Dr. King suggests that American History and its
promises and its fundamental construction all demonstrate a need to bring out equality
for people of color, specifically Black Americans.  The threat that might be present
here is that if White America does not acknowledge its own history and its own
theoretical condition of freedom and justice for all, then its treatment of Black
Americans serves as a reminder of its fraudulent condition.  The idea of a "promissory
note" needing to have been made good is something that Dr. King brings out in his
speech, and at the same time, is a veiled threat to the most hallowed of historical
consciousness in American thought.   Both works do not outwardly threaten because they
don't need to do so.  Merely suggesting the results of deferral of dreams and not
heeding the calls to transform reality become unsettling visions of the
future.