Countee Cullen's Incident

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In the poem, "Incident," by Countee Cullen, he explains that racism is painful no matter what age you have to face it, and leaves a scar in your mind for a lifetime. Countee Cullen was born May 30, 1903. Morris(2000) asserts, "by all accounts, no one is certain where he was born. Some say Louisville, Kentucky; others, Baltimore; others still, New York City. Cullen's origins are shrouded in this sort of mystery. The poet himself gave conflicting accounts of his birth place"(p. 88). He died January 9, 1946 in New York City, New York due to high blood pressure and uremic poisoning. Cullen was known for being an American poet who was a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. "He graduated Phi Betta kappa from New York University, then a year later he earned a M.A. from Harvard University."(Smith, 1950, p. 216) Cullen followed a traditional writing style in which his works strongly related to racism. The poem "Incident" comes from Cullen's book called Color, which displays his writing style quite well.
From my perspective, in the poem, he says that while riding through the Baltimore, he was excited and enjoyed every bit of his travel and sight that he had. During his travel he happened to notice a Baltimorean starring at him for no reason. Those made him wonder why the stranger was staring at him. He says in the poem in the second stanza that, he was a kid then who was just eight years old and the stranger who was starring was not anyone older than him, it was just another boy of the same age. Seeing him, the poet just smiled, but it was taken back when the other boy just stuck his tongue out and called him a "Nigger." This shows that even children are being taught racism at a young age and they keep blacks from thei...

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...ur mind for a lifetime. It is not anybody’s fault, for being born black. The poet says that even blacks are humans and they too deserve to be equal. Cullen has proved that black people can make it to the top, in spite of the obstacles they have to face. I enjoyed reading this poem simply because after reading the poem, you could imagine how the author was feeling. It just shows the affect that racism has on a person. It scars you for a lifetime and you always keep the incident in mind. All it does is create anger and pain among the blacks, and causes horrid, everlasting memories. This poem has proven that.

References
Smith, R. (1950). The poetry of countee cullen. Phylon, 11(3), 216-221. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/272005
Morris, G. (2000). Countee cullen. African American Authors, 1745-1945: Bio- bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, 88-91.

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