juxtaposing the black boy & the bullet

Smith celebrates the Black body while also almost writing a eulogy for it. Smith describes the body as hard, loud, fast, a flash, warm, and looking for a home. While most of these can certainly have negative connotations, most of them also show the body alive with vitality and youth. The body also contrasts the cold, hard death of the bullet, which is inanimate and kills. The body is life.

This is important because there is a long history in America of weaponizing the Black body, especially the male body, for racist intentions. This began with slavery and the literal enslavement of the Black body as a means of economic production. Black bodies were bought, sold, and used as livestock.

In addition to slavery, the minstrel show mocked the Black body with racist stereotypes and offensive portrayals by White actors in blackface. The idea was to lampoon, shame, and criticize the Black body by connecting it to racist beliefs about Black people including stupidity, sexual promiscuity, and a general sense of incivility.

Along with minstrel shows, America has traditionally viewed the Black male body as threatening. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, there was a deeply entrenched tradition of viewing Black men as overly sexual and unable to control their carnal drive.