Loss of Innocence in Cullen's 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 Cullen's "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 the concept of racism as they consume the innocence of the black children by stereotyping them as "niggers."
The word "nigger" causes the young Naylor and the child in Cullen's poem to begin viewing the world in terms of “black and white”, and the racial epithet establishes an invisible barrier between the black and the white worlds. Neither child ever indicates the color of the people he/she speaks of. Naylor gives her most in-depth physical description of the child that calls her "nigger" when she recalls that she handed the papers to a little boy in back of me" (344). Naylor’s vague description gives the appearance that the young Naylor sees no important distinctions between the boy and herself. However, the fact that the “little boy” calls her “nigger” proves not only that the boy sees a major distinction between himself and Naylor, but also that the boy is white (344).
The child in Countee Cullen’s poem gives a similarly “color”-less description of the “Baltimorean” boy as he/she say...
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...my grandmother’s living room took a word that whites used to signify worthlessness or degradation and rendered it impotent" (346).
In this response to the derogatory term, Naylor’s essay offers a tool to fight racism and a message of hope for the innocent minority children which Cullen’s "Incident" lacks: In the process of socialization in a racist society, a child may lose innocence, but a child may also gain strength and character by rising above any racist stereotypes society applies to him/her.
Works Cited
Cullen, Countee. "Incident." African-American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology. Ed. Al Young. New York: Harper Collins, 1996. 398.
Naylor, Gloria. "Mommy, What Does "Nigger" Mean?" New Worlds of Literature: Writings from America’s Many Cultures, second edition. Eds. Jerome Beatty and J. Paul Hunter. New York: Norton, 1994. 344-47.
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