Racial Profiling In Countee Cullen's Poem

Racial profiling is all too commonplace in modern society, and even in formal literature. Examples of such profiling are two poems, both entitled Incident, written by Countee Cullen and Natasha Trethewey respectively. In these poems a very tangible message of the difficulties faced by different races, is presented to the reader. Using the literary topic lens of values, we can dissect these pieces and find the similarities between them. Such similarities include the social stigma of being different in society, the emotional toll these differences inflict, and the eventual results of these differences. Using the lens of values, we can dissect the first similarity between these poems, the social stigma of being different. Within Cullen's Incident, a young boy, himself in this case, is walking through his town and meets what in his colloquialism are called Baltimoreans. He is carefree, and full of joy to be exploring the town, "Heart-filled, head filled with glee" (Cullen 2). As he passes what is described as a similar size white child, the topic of a racial stigma is presented. The narrator, smiles to the young boy, and expected to receive in kind. However the social stigma of different races overtakes this young boy, and he displays the society norm of the time. "And so I smiled, but he poked out, / …show more content…
The narrator, a young child witnessing the community's view on her family, recounts a "scare tactic" in which, "a few men gathered, white as angels in their gowns" (Trethewey 10). A few radical members of this young child's community gathered to burn a cross in her front yard, to scare her family away, and keep the community homogenous in their eyes. These citizens ethnic values, opposed to black citizens in their town, capitalize on the social stigma felt by African Americas during this time, and use these extreme tactics to preserve their "community" for