Comparing the Loss of Innocence in Cullens Incident and...

Loss of Innocence in Cullens Incident and Naylor’s Mommy, What Does Nigger Mean? Unfortunately, a question that many African Americans have to ask in childhood is Mommy, what does nigger mean?, and the answer to this question depicts the racism that still thrives in America (345). Both Gloria Naylor’s Mommy, What Does Nigger Mean? and Countee Cullens Incident demonstrate how a word like nigger destroys a child’s innocence and initiates the child into a world of racism. Though the situations provoking the racial slur differ, the word nigger has the same effect on the young Naylor and the child in Cullen’s poem. A racist society devours the white children’s innocence, and, consequently, the white children embody†¦show more content†¦Unlike Naylor, Cullen never identifies the sex of the black child in his poem. Perhaps Cullen renders the child in his poem genderless to give the child a more universal standing; perhaps he leaves the child genderless in order to focus on the more important fact that the child, whether male or fema le, sees no difference between him- or herself and the other boy until the â€Å"Baltimorean boy calls him/her nigger (3). Both Cullen and Naylor add color to the description of the children with this single racial epithet. The white children’s use of the word nigger establishes a distinction between them and the black children in Naylor and Cullen’s works which embodies the essence of racism. This distinction forces the young Naylor and the child in Cullen’s poem to see beyond their innocence and to see themselves and their world in new colors: black and white. Both Naylor and Cullen touch on an important issue by noting that the first incident of racism for the black children, occurring when the white children call them nigger, takes place between two children. The fact that the white boys call the young Naylor and the child in Cullen’s poem nigger at such a young age reflects the unfortunate truth that America teaches color boundaries and racism at a young age. The word nigger does not exist in white children’s vocabulary at birth. Rather, their parents and community teach them the word and pass down the legacy of racism as if it is an