In “We Wear the Mask,” the mask symbolizes the social inequality present in America at the turn of the twentieth century. Dunbar uses the image of a mask to portray inequality and racism still prevalent in the United States at the time:
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes
African Americans were forced to put on a smile in public and pretend as though they were treated justly:
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Inequality was something that they were forced to live with:
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
Dunbar also uses the mask as a symbol of American hypocrisy in the following lines. Slavery had been abolished in the nation. If Americans were really adamant about changing society, they could do so. Instead, racism and racial inequality were still evident.
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
