COUNTING DESCENT

Past. Present. Future.

Smith unifies his poetry collection, Counting Descent by organizing his poems around the theme of historic and modern social injustice against African Americans. In the fluidity of his writing, he weaves instances of racial injustice throughout his collection. From literal meanings of hatred by murdering innocent people, to using objects and nature to explain the harshness of society and what other black people have had to suffer so that the next generation can flourish. Clint Smith uses his collection to give the readers an insight to what black people faced for hundreds of years.

Foremost, Smith’s poems document the types of social justice throughout history. Throughout his collection, the poems depict how historic social injustice has caused a cycle of hatred and cruelty toward black people just because of their race. “what the ocean said to the black boy”, shows how society tries to ‘drown’ people who seem different, people who, in the past, wanted to take a stand against racial discrimination.

they say you just a conflagration

of bad intentions boy

they use me to put you out

don’t want you burning this place down. (p. 10)

Clint Smith shows that society sees African Americans as trouble because of the stands they took in the past to get free rights and fears that these people will rebel against society’s institutions. The author makes this point very clear when he writes,

they call me blue because

they don’t understand how the sky work

they call you black because

they don’t understand how god work (p.10)

The poem makes the point that the ignorance of society from the past grows from their fear that one-day black people will ultimately rise and destroy the labels and chains society once put on them. Smith argues that white society often assumes that their skin color makes them superior. This poem forces readers to confront the reality that white supremacy depends on the assumed racial inferiority of people of color. An example of a poem about a mixed-race slave driver, “For Charles”, gives an insight to the past where racism highly influenced society’s opinion. “I imagine there came a point…/where you decided enough was enough/had you already accepted what would be made of you?” (p.38) Being black made people property, not human. Moreover, this collection flows from the past to present about the hardships black people then and now had to endure because society saw them as something other than human. These examples of history racial inequality given throughout the book to show how the past has influenced the present-day inequalities.

           Moving on from historic injustice to modern-day injustice, through the use of figurative and literal writing, Clint Smith shows how the past has influenced the modern-day social injustice. He writes about how history repeats itself with police brutality and African Americans having to watch themselves just because society labeled them as ‘dangerous’. “How to make an Empty Cardboard Box disappear in 10 steps”, gives the reader an insight into the seemingly never-ending cycle of blood and hate. The blood that has shed because society fears black people and uses that as an excuse for these tragedies.

7) Attend the rally of Eric Garner

8) Attend the rally of Freddie Gray

9) Find another empty box

10) Attend the rally of __________ (p. 52)

In light of this quote, Clint Smith writes about how this same injustice has carried from the past into the present. He writes about fear influencing people leading to consequences and allowing them to get away with murder because racism and racial discrimination still sways the opinions of justice. “Ode to the Only Black kid in Class” again represents how actions like the civil rights movement from the past created opportunities for African Americans now. modern-day society sees these opportunities of success as ‘affirmative action’.

Too black & too white

All at once. If you are successful

It is because of affirmative action

If you fail it is because you are destined to.

…Before they

watch you turn to dust (p. 27)

The collection as a whole instills the idea that society has already set black people as not good enough or only accepted into something to represent ‘diversity’. Clint Smith shows the same society believing that African Americans cannot make their own choices in life or independent individuals. Society already set out what life for them, and not their own. The poems presume that the roots of white society still have racial discrimination, deep and unrelenting from the past. Even if the world has changed, the opinions from the past still manipulate todays. The collections threads events of vicious murders from the present throughout the poems to leave the reader wondering if society will ever advance for the greater good.

           Comparatively, Clint Smith incorporates both the past and the present to show the similarities between the injustices black people face. He displays that the past threaded insinuations of resentment towards black people simply because of the color of their skin. The past has influenced the present, showing the underlying hatred white society still has for black people as shown through murders and brutality. These two overarching themes shown throughout the book, unify the collection. Many of the poems include themes of racial injustice from the past and present, showing that Clint Smith tries to show the reader the similarities from the past, brought into the present. “what the fire hydrant said to the black boy” says,

A burning cross

Putting a boy against the wall

So the dogs would have an easier time

A mourning mother of a boy who thought

 sending him to that school across town

would mean

he’d have an easier time (p.20)

Society has labeled African Americans as dangerous and not worthy from the past, and those idea has now transitioned to the present. The way Clint Smith writes about the past and the present to show how history has influenced today gives the reader an insight into what African Americans feel because of what society has done. “For the boys at the bottom of the ocean” shows how the hopes of African Americans slowly drifted away because what history has shown them and how history has repeated itself. They once had dreams of becoming something more than what society sees, but in the end society’s injustice and labels suffocated them until there was nothing else to do but drown. Clint Smith illustrates this point by saying,

The irony of a ship burning

At sea, surrounded by

the very thing that could

save us. (p.11)

Furthermore, the collection derives that, life has so many opportunities, but many African Americans could never take advantage of them, because of the cycle of animosity because people believe they feel superior to another group of people because society demonstrated the idea of supremacy, throughout history. Clint Smith writes about these examples of hatred so that the reader can see that abolishing slavery and giving every race equal right does not mean that racial discrimination disappeared from society. The author wants to show the reader that it will take more than just writing in the constitution that all people are created equal to end racism.

            Finally, Counting Descent as a whole tries to give the reader more knowledge of the injustices happening today and how these incidents formed from the past. The cycle of hate and fear white people feel they need just because someone looks different justifies the viciousness they have put on these people. Clint Smith uses his collection to show that white society hides behind this cycle because of their insecurities and their need to have power over someone. Although this collection has other poems of happiness, Clint Smith depicts racial discrimination from the past to the present as the overall theme of this collection.