Lucille Clifton's Poem In The Inner City

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During the early part of the 20th century, White-America fed and thrived off the established institution of racism. Although the physical bondage of slavery had ended years before, social chains still confined the African American public to a lower level of society, making it hard for them to climb to the peak that is equality. From areas where the most oppressed lie, however, some of the most beautiful art emerges. Movements in black culture such as the Harlem Renaissance provided an outlet for the struggles faced by those who were stepped on by society, and Lucille Clifton’s poem “in the inner city” exemplifies artist’s ability to analyze their situation and transfer thought and emotion gracefully into word. Clifton’s use of free verse to …show more content…

By writing long lines then opposing them with short phrases, the writing is able to convey an adverse view, which is generally applied to black culture, onto the local more privileged community. She again employs plural point of view to demonstrate how, as a collective minority, “we often think of uptown”(5), referring to white society. The silent nights then described in line six refer to the apparent blandness of white culture when compared to the lively nature of the inner city. The long lines of 6 and 7 are then disrupted by line 8 in a very abrupt and jarring manner: “and the houses straight as” (7) “dead men” (8). This wording not only plays on the uniformity of White Culture, but addresses social divisions both past and present. The comparison of the white houses to dead men is a comparison of the insipid area that is uptown to the lively nature of the inner city and black life. A passed and darker meaning also rests on the shoulders of these dead men, as the houses that these wealthy whites inhabit have been built on the backs of African American’s since the countries origins. By applying these new and controversial images to both cultures, Clifton challenges societal conventions among both races in attempt to shift views concerning how black life is portrayed versus its

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