Whitman is mainly writing about the employed people who have jobs and are relatively well off and who contribute to society in the millions doing the tasks according to their trade or profession and are what he considers the "backbone of society" whereas Langston Hughes gives a different picture of America of the black people who must retire to the kitchen and hide themselves when guests come (by inference to a white person's place) and who must suffer unemployment and economically difficult times often.But in spite of that, he remains optimistic that things will get better for black Americans.