In Countee Cullen's, "Incident", the narrator states that he was "...eight and very small" (pg. 2241) so he probably hasn't seen much of the evil world yet but that changed when he experienced a childish act of bigotry. The incident occurred when the narrator was happily riding in Baltimore and smiled at someone. Instead of smiling back, this person stuck out his tongue and called him a "nigger". This incident was probably the narrators first racial encounter and most likely the reason its the only thing that the narrator remembers of his time in Baltimore. Not only race, this incident might have been the first time that he has seen the hate of the world. I think that many African-Americans have memories similar to this one. People remember
