Cullen's Incident, Racism, Incident

The first person to influence McLaurin’s racial views was a black playmate by the name of Bobo. During this time period it was perfectly acceptable for white children to play with black children. In “Separate Pasts” McLaurin describes an event in which he had licked a needle

First, the aggressor in this situation is only 15 years old. At 15 years old, the aggressor felt it both necessary and acceptable to violently attack another player. Moreover, the 15 year old victim subjected to the attack was incredibly damaged emotionally from the event. Secondly, the verbiage used is so violent which highlights the significance of racism in minor hockey. The nature of the sport evokes intense and sporadic emotions which encourages the oppressor to express their truest emotions. As a result, one can conclude that racism is deeply rooted within that player’s beliefs, and which is not exclusive to this incident.

Cullen is hopeful to get to a place where people of different races will be able to look at others without prejudice and discrimination. However, the poem “Incident” is of a less positive tone. She expresses her experience in a shocked manner, saying, a boy stuck his “tongue out and, called, [her] ‘Nigger’,” (Cullen 8). She was so shocked that “From May until December; .../… of all the things that happened... /… that’s all [she could remember” in Baltimore (Cullen 10-12). At the young age that she was at, it is surprising and upsetting to her to be discriminated against for no reason.

To show first hand to the whites the inequality’s and hardships that the blacks face, the entire first section is in a narrative and a descriptive format. The use of these types of essays lets the readers feel more involved in the story and feel things for themselves. Split into two sections within itself, this first paragraph juxtaposes two stories — one about a “young Negro boy” living in Harlem, and the other about a “young Negro girl” living in Birmingham. The parallelism in the sentence structures of introducing the children likens them even more — despite the differences between them — whether it be their far away location, or their differing, yet still awful, situations. Since this section is focused more towards his white audience, King goes into a description of what it was like living as an African American in those times— a situation the black audience knew all too well. His intense word choice of describing the boy’s house as “vermin-infested” provokes a very negative reaction due to the bad

Contrary to the past attempt by elders to protect the youth, which involved scolding without reasoning, these two authors give their reader the naked truth when explaining the realities of this world. This naked truth is displayed when Coates tells his son “…the policeman who cracks you with a nightstick will quickly find his excuse in your furtive movements”(71). Coates doesn't avoid telling his son about the injustices that he may face nor does he avoid telling his son how this injustices will be justified. Baldwin illustrates his experience in New Jersey just as straightforward when he says “…I frightened the waitress who shortly appeared…I hated her for her white face and for her great, astounded, frightened eyes. I felt that if she found a black man so frightening I would make her fright worthwhile”(593). Baldwin uses powerful statements like “…I would make her fright worthwhile” in order to make sure his readers understand the intensity of this hatred. Both Coates and Baldwin paint vivid pictures with their explicit wording in order to be sure that the reader comprehends just how serious each matter

Segregation had had many effects on the black nation, to the point that it started building up ones character, “See the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness towards white people”, King shows readers that segregation is even affecting little children, that it is starting to build up a young girls character and is contributing to the child developing hatred “bitterness” towards the white Americans. King makes readers imagine a black cloud settling in a young girls brain mentally, when instead she should have an image of a colorful blue sky with a rainbow, isn’t that suppose to be part of a 6 year-old’s imagination? King gives readers an image of destruction civil disobedience had created in the black community, especially in the young innocent little children.

Many of the adults in the town have very racist ideals, such as the men who destroy An Lu's garden and call him a "red! Fucking! Rat!" Silvey is able to illustrate this encounter through the fearful and innocent eyes of Charlie, which presents the racism that is present in the town of Corrigan to the reader in a very bad light. Charlie's coming of age and being able to see this from his perspective throughout the novel helps the reader to understand the racism and ignorance of the adults in Corrigan, as Silvey says "What I try to address in Jasper Jones is that some folks learn to live as adults, but never quite grow up. They live without that critical filter, still inside that bubble, protecting its thin skin by still subscribing to the same myths that they've always abided by." Throughout the course of the novel, Charlie learns to live outside of that bubble and be accepting of new things, which

Although fictional texts are simply narratives, the characters and ideas presented within them have the ability to reflect a particular period in time and the attitudes and beliefs associated with it. The coming of age novel Jasper Jones, written by Craig Silvey, follows the journey of Charlie Bucktin, the thirteen-year-old protagonist, who is forced to rethink his traditional notions of right and wrong, after a tragedy opens his eyes to the world around him. Throughout the novel Silvey brings to light issues concerning morality, justice, and humility, by discussing them from the perspectives of certain individuals including Charlie, Jasper and Jeffrey. Overall it is these representations that provoke audiences to question their own morality, and to question the prejudices present in society during that era.

Cullen wrote more conventionally which is important to the future generations who may comes across The New Negro. His topics focused on the black experience and his poetry was more traditional and soulful which he strongly believed to be the best way of writing. This what made him different from Hughes, Hurston, Toomer and others, who initially focused more on the folk tradition as their signature style. Furthermore, Cullen differed from his peers by defying the ideology of remaining within his race poetically. It was not in fact denying his "blackness" or African American Heritage but bringing to recognition his right to create ideas and works that does not necessarily have to deal with race. He acknowledged that he was Black, just like the

Throughout the poem Incident by Countee Cullen, the author uses the change of tone to reflect the ideas and purpose of the Harlem Renaissance. Throughout the poem, the tone changes from the young child being thrilled about arriving to a heartbreaking memory. In the poem, cullen writes “Once riding in old Baltimore? Heart-filled, head filled with glee/ I saw a Baltimorean/ Keep looking straight at me/ Now I was eight and very small,/ And he was no whit bigger,” (lines 1-6). In this part of the poem, the child had just recently arrived in Baltimore and is more than excited to be in a different place other than in the plantations. He’s very optimistic about meeting someone whom he thought would be his friend. The tone explains how during the Harlem

The life outcome that Wes Moore, the author, had was different from the other Wes More. He was doing bad in his education as well with his interactions with the family. Every teacher declared that Wes was a poor student and was unmotivated to pay attention in class. The teachers came to conclusion that Wes had a problem socializing, however; Wes “was a victim of a monocultural educational environment that alienates and denigrates him” (Sue, 230). The school staff was unable to see that the problem existed within the institution/ environment and not on Wes, because they were focusing only in one culture which made Wes feel as an outsider. The

     Soon after Moody entered high school, Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old boy from Chicago, was killed for whistling at a white woman. After hearing about the murder, Moody realized she really did not know much about what was going on around her. ?Before Emmett Till?s murder, I had known the fear of hunger hell and the Devil but now there was a new fear known to me ? the fear of being killed just because I was black.? Moody?s response to this was asking her high school teacher, Mrs. Rice, about Emmett?s murder and the NAACP.

This story has affected me in a few ways. One of the ways was how children think and see the world. One of the ways is how children see and picture racial equality. They do this in a way that many adults are not readily capable of doing, or choose not to. From the story early on we are told of a girl named Kesha who distinguishes beyond the socio-typical distinctions of black and white, when she states, “‘Okay, peach with spots for you and brown without spots for me, except his one and this one on my cheek”’ (Paley, pg. 15). In another part in the story, the author says two children, Jeremy and Martha, playing a game of Guess Who? Jeremey asked

The South had many brutal beating and lynchings of African-Americans. One horrific event was Emmett Till. Emmett was a 14 year old African-American boy that was originally from Chicago, Illinois, but he was visiting family in Mississippi. He was in town with his cousins and they went into a drug store to get bubble gum. On their way out, Emmit “flirted” with the woman at the cash register by saying “Bye, baby.” The woman was extremely offended. Her husband was the owner of the store and he was on a business trip, when he returned home the woman told him about what had happened and he was furious. On the night of August 28, 1955, in the middle of the night, the man got the woman’s brother and they went to Emmett’s Great Uncle Mose Wright’s house where Emmett was staying. They forced Emmett into the car and drove him to the Tallahatchie River. The men forced him to carry a 75 pound cotton-gin fan to the river bank. Emmett was forced to remove his clothes and the men beat him nearly to death. They brutally gouged out Emmett’s eye and shot him in the head. The cotton-gin fan was tied to the body and then thrown into the river. The body was found and recovered three days later on August 31, the body looked almost inhuman. The only way the body was identified as Emmett Till, was a ring that had been pasted down through the family that Emmett always worn. Till’s mother Mamie Bradley

Racism has plagued society for centuries. Bob Dylan addressed this obstacle in his ballad that reflected the death of Emmett Till. Emmett was a fourteen-year-old African American boy from Chicago who was brutally killed for flirting with a white woman. Dylan recounts