Racial Injustice: Poem Analysis

Racial injustice is an ongoing issue that has existed as far as humanity can remember. Racial injustice is commonly defined as the denial of a person’s basic human rights due to their racial background (“What is Racial Injustice?” 1). In reading the poems Incident by Countee Cullen, Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes, and Afterimages by Audre Lorde, the readers are able to have an idea of how racial injustice was in the past. These three well written poems help give readers a glimpse of how things were like back in the day. It is interesting to see how the racial injustices seen in these poems can still be seen today. Cullen’s poem, Incident, was written in 1920 and portrays a very emotional and traumatic interaction between two young boys. Cullen reminisces to a time in his childhood when he was eight years old taking a bus in Baltimore. When

Till’s murder could have been solved if the public opinion of African Americans were different. The public opinion of African Americans during the time period of 1955 consisted of nothing other than racism. Evidence against the defendants Roy and J.W. Milan was massive, but they were let go free from all charges. They were found not guilty due to many outside factors. One such factor is that the jury consisted of white males whom most likely had a negative and racist view of African Americans (Biography.com Editors 2-3). In the case of Emmett Till, justice was not served because of racism. Afterimages is successful in voicing the continuing trauma of this tragic racial injustice. Reading this poem about Emmett Till and looking at the way things are now, not much has really changed. From Trayvon Martin, to Michael Brown, and even to Ronnie King, one can see the pattern of racial injustice that continues to prevail even till this