Brutal Imagination

The poems of Cornelius Eady (2001) in Brutal Imagination are broken into two sections. In the first section Eady's persona is the black man invented by white consciousness, particularly the black criminal invented by individuals like Susan Smith, Charles Stewart, and white American invention (Stepin Fetchit, Buckwheat, Aunt Jemima, etc.). The second section, entitle The Running Man Poems, illustrates the barriers in white, racist society that often tear apart the black family and defer the dreams of black youth. Throughout this collection of poems Eady makes on point crystal clear; White America has a need to create an "other" on which to posit negative qualities, an "other" that is most often a black person.

Two of the main themes in this collect pervade most of the poems included. The first is that the idea of the black man as criminal is one that stems from white projection. The second is that barriers of racism and prejudice continue to thwart opportunities for black youth and are destructive to the black family. The audience for these poems is both white and black readers. It is for

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Category: Literature - B