Racism and Economic Inequality
The poem describes poverty and racism as two intertwined forces, choosing not to explicitly differentiate between these two social ills. Thus, Angelou places observations of widespread hunger and unemployment beside those about more direct forms of racial discrimination. In doing so, she implies that racial and economic issues cannot be wholly separated, and that both are part of a broader, unjust power structure—one metaphorically described via the rules of hopscotch. The speaker's choice to opt out of this game is clearly not representative of an ability to simply cease being victimized by this power structure. After all, they cannot choose not to be Black or poor. Instead, their decision to opt out may represent a choice to see racism and poverty for the arbitrary, unfair structures that they are, learning to survive injustice without buying into its logic.
The Challenge of Poverty
By representing the hardship Harlem residents face as a game with challenging and specific rules, Angelou simultaneously points out the arbitrariness and silliness of many social norms, and suggests a certain respect for those able to neatly navigate them. Rather than represent Harlem's residents as passive victims, Angelou portrays them as knowledgeable practitioners of a skill—in this case, the skill of survival. The speaker's own choice to stop playing the game and stop obeying arbitrary norms is a critique of the norms themselves, but does not detract from the implicit admiration for those who are able to artfully navigate the rules of the "Harlem hopscotch." In other words, while the game may be unnecessary and even harmful, Angelou hints, its players are nonetheless talented.
Childhood and Innocence
This theme rests upon a more literal reading of the hopscotch motif, which is by no means mutually exclusive with the metaphorical one mentioned above. By juxtaposing the rules of a children's game with instructions for survival in a harsh environment—and by using that game as an extended metaphor for the norms of that environment—Angelou challenges cliches about the innocence and freedom of childhood. At least for children who are subject to racism, hunger, and instability, she posits, these decidedly non-innocent realities become part of the fabric of life, interwoven with the more traditionally childlike routines of play. This is at once a saddening and a hopeful insight. While it is saddening that these children must consider distressing realities alongside childlike play, it is also subtly hopeful that they are able to play despite their worries.
