Violence in Living Jim Crow, Incident, and Blood Burning MoonViolence appears to be a fairly common topic in black American literature of the first decades of the 20th century. One of the main reasons for this is probably that it was important for black authors not to remain silent about the injustices they suffered. The violence described in the texts is not only physical, but also psychological: constant harassment and terror. The ever-present violence had such an effect on blacks that they were unable to fight back to stop the injustices. Richard Wright describes in his autobiography "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographic Sketch" the atmosphere of his first job, where his fellow workers would not teach him anything, just because he was black: "This is a man's job white people around here, and you better watch out” (291). From then on he never really felt comfortable going to work. This kind of uneasy feeling is also found in Countee Cullen's "Incident". It clearly shows how children are not really aware of the differences that adults believe exist between different races until they are told that there is a difference. The poem appears to be the product of personal experiences as a child, when another child sticks out his tongue and calls the speaker "nigger" during a stay in Baltimore, and depicts the human tendency to look no further than color. of the skin. This is likely an event that has stuck in the child's mind throughout his life, hence the final lines of the poem: "I saw all of Baltimore / From May to December; / Of all the things that happened there / That's all that I remember" (384). In his autobiography Wright also describes his childhood fi...... middle of paper...... free rein habits. Reading Black Voices really made me think about how I act and think when it comes to racial issues and even though I know that all human beings are the same, this kind of reminder is necessary - for all of us. Bibliography: From the Black Voices anthology:Jean Toomer: 'Blood Burning Moon'Richard Wright: 'The Jim Crow Ethic of Life: An Autobiographical Sketch'Dudley Randall: 'The Idiot'Cullen County: 'Accident'Internet Resources :Cullen County. The Academy of American Poets. March 2001 Jean Toomer. Heath Online Instructor Guide. March 2001 1 "Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed saepe cadendo": Latin for "The drop sculpts the stone, not with force but with continuous dripping."