Cognition, Narrative, and Identity Politics
Countee Cullen, “one of the most representative voices of the Harlem Renaissance,” tells a brief story in his widely read poem, “Incident.” The speaker of the poem was visiting Baltimore as a child. He saw a boy his own age and smiled. The boy, whom we infer to be white, responded with a racist slur. The speaker concludes the poem by explaining that, “Of all the things that happened there [in Baltimore]/That’s all that I remember.” This incident is one point in the social dissemination of racist ideology. It is underwritten by a form of (white or, more generally, hegemonic) identity politics and at least appears to demand a response in the form of (black or, more generally, subaltern) identity politics. However, that apparent necessity should be analyzed and evaluated in relation to the cognitive and affective processes of identity politics, as well as some related features of narrative organization.