Cross

My old man’s a white old man
and my old mother’s black.
If ever I cursed my white old man
I take my curses back.
If ever I cursed my black old mother
and wished she were in hell,
I’m sorry for that evil wish
and now I wish her well.
My old man died in a fine big house;
my ma died in a shack.
I wonder were I’m going to die
being neither white nor black?

“Cross” is a poem basically about the narrator’s life as a mixture of both the white and black races. The African women were raped by their white masters or the masters’ helpers. These were women who were oftentimes already married and had families of their own, would become pregnant and produce mulatto (mixutre of black and white) children. Since, according to law, anyone with 5% black blood in them were considered 100% black, all children born 1/2 black and 1/2 white were considered all black. So the slave owner would never claim that child as his own. This is the premise of Langston Hughes’ poem, “Cross.”

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