Poem Connection to Warmth of Other Sons

The poem I chose to compare Ida Mae’s beginning encounter with whites was I Too by Langston Hughes. This poem speaks about the existence of a black person in the current situation of what is America. They are treated like second class citizens I which they cannot mingle with the whites. The resourceful African American will bide his time to the day when they will “grow strong” (line7) and be treated as equal and be able to share the same space. They will make the people, who previously made blacks lower than them, feel ashamed of their behavior and see the beauty in the black body, for they “too are American” (line 17).

The story that Ida Mea tells is of the invisible hand that separated whites from blacks in physical space. There was a literal fire wall that separated whites and blacks from walking on the same street. Also, the interesting thing I found was that the parking spaces in front of the bank that she had to pass by were not marked whites only, but they were assumed only for whites to park there. The colored spaced were on the other side of the street by default. Wilkerson points out that this division is what constitutes the invisible hand (Page 31). In particular, Ida Mae had specific dealings with white people. It was mostly her services rendered to the whites and they always made sure she “knew her place” (page 31) as their subordinate and not their equal. In terms of poor treatment, when Ida Mae was six years old, she was harassed by a white blacksmiths two sons that dangled her over a deep well. Thankfully they did not drop her in, but the fact that they did it while their father was not looking shows that they would have felt remorse if their father found out. Ida Mae stated that if she was accidentally dropped, the men would have never said what they did and a dead Ida Mae would be at the bottom of a well, and the people who looked for her would not know where she was or how she got there. This goes back to the poem in that even though she is Black and a child, she still has the same protection rights of every American. She deserves the right to not be harassed and to get help when she needs it.