Of a Man Named Countee Cullen.

Last Wednesday  we were introduced to the poems “horse” by Gloria Anzaldua as well as Countee Cullen’s “Incident”. Both poems are highly influenced by mixed culture in America (“horse’s” on American and Chicanos or Mexican while “Incident’s” on African American and the white people).

         

 So here’s a short biography of Countee Cullen:

Countee Cullen, an African-American poet was born on May 30, 1903 in New York City. He was also a playwright, activist, and educator who was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance, the African-American arts and cultural movement that crossed the 1920s. He began writing poetry at the early age of fourteen. After entering New York University in 1922, his poems started to get published in The Crisis, a magazine of the National Urban League. Later the Century Magazine, Harper’s and Poetry also gave him a spot in publishing poems. His poem, “Ballad of the Brown Girl” made him won several awards and he even graduated from New York University in 1923, the same year he published his first volume, “Color” in which the poem “Incident” was included. After that, he completed his master degree in Harvard University. 

While writing this entry, I found an interesting fact about his background; he was raised and educated in a primarily white community and that’s what makes him differed from other poets of the Harlem Renaissance like Langston Hughes. He wanted to speak to all Americans, not just to the ones who looked like him. 

His second volume, “Copper Sun (1927)” collides with controversy in the black community since he did not give much attention to the race issues as much as he did in Color. Countee Cullen died on January 9, 1946.

In his poem Incident, Cullen managed to bring out a racism incident that happened to (probably, and I’m pretty sure it was his very own personal incident) him when he was a child. The first impression I got from the poem was “RUDE!” when it gets to the “Nigger” syllable. Incident somehow can be read as happening at the first stanza then innocent, sad and of course, a taste of racial prejudice as it may sound.

Speaking of prejudice, I believe people at some point in their life had the experience of it. To be honest, the feeling was horrible and I myself faced the experience big time. In “Incident”, Countee Cullen tackles the issue of racial prejudice. Even though the poem was written almost 100 years ago, it still manages to ring true today.

In my case it is almost similar to Cullen’s experience. I was born and raised in Machang, Kelantan. In school, my deep interest in English had made me a bit different from other kids or even in my own family because in Kelantan, the kids were not quite fond of English lessons and some of them learned English simply for the sake of grade. I read English novels, write birthday cards in English, listen to good English music (so I can practice more on my listening skill and also for the fun of it), watch English movies, speak in English outside of classroom with my best friend and the list goes on. For them it seemed as I was trying to be one of the Westerners. What they did not get was I had passion in learning English for the beauty of learning it, not becoming one of the people. As a consequence, they out thrown me and saying things like, “Oh, she speaks English. What a show off!”.

Another experience of mine is also coming from the fact that I’m a Kelantanese, a place called “rural, conservative, where close-minded people live in”. When I got a letter calling for PLKN service in 2010, I knew it was going to be my chance to expand my circle of friends. And so I did without telling them where exactly I came from. But of all the memories I built in PLKN, I remember one the most: a so-called friend from other state in Malaysia said to me, “no wonder you’re so weird. You’re from Kelantan.” There are plenty of other experiences as I grew up and that has changed who I am today and I’m thankful to be able to experience all that because if I would not, I will never grow up and speak against racial prejudice or any kind of prejudices.

Ref: "Countee Cullen." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2014.