Incident By Countee Cullen Summary

In the poem “Incident” by Countee Cullen, the speaker talks about their trip to old Baltimore as a child. They discussed the scenery of the city. As the speaker was observing all of the beautiful scenery of Baltimore. They were stared at a plethora of times. They were being discriminated on the colour of their skin. People have been judged on the colour of their skin for years. Most people think that this day in age that it doesn’t happen as much. This is not the case. As recent events have shown, white police officers have killed black people. Not just men anymore, women such as Sandra Bland (#SAY HER NAME) and others have been killed -or mysteriously found dead- while in police custody. When white people have committed crimes, they get escorted out of

The teacher is giving them a lecture on slavery. He says that “Before the war they were happy.” (Citation 2) I don’t think anyone would be happy to be owned by somebody. Natasha Trethewey writes in the poem that she learned a false representation of slavery growing up. Her teacher quotes the textbook as saying that the slaves were not in peril of any sort because they were fed and clothed and housed, almost as if this justifies the way they were treated. Natasha says that, “These were lies my teacher guarded.” (Citation 3 )The difference between these is how they both learned about their history. The tone of “Incident” is infuriating, because he was only a child. Who would disrespect a child. This isn’t how a child should find out about who they are as a person. The word, “Nigger” doesn’t define you. The tone of Southern History, is also infuriating. Why lie about the history of a tragic time period. Is it to make you feel better? We live in a period of time where we are very self-aware of what goes on to our community, and we have begun to not let it slide. We have begun to make the changes that can possibly save us in the