By this child's behavior, one can see how the ideas of this era were ingrained into society. Even a young child felt he should not socialize with a black child. This child felt that segregation was justified because he did not like black people. However, one cannot expect a white child to know how to socially interact with black children all his life. "Telephone Conversation" shows a woman who does not want to rent to a " very dark" man. This woman would like to separate herself from the obvious members of a minority group. This type of segregation was so common during this time period that the man placing the call felt he needed to disclose his color ahead of time in order to avoid " a wasted journey." The poems reflect a time period dominated by segregation of blacks and whites.

             During the time of "Incident" and "Telephone Conversation" the exclusion of blacks was common place. This is most often noted in the inability of blacks to participate in the electoral process. Along with voting, blacks were denied many of the other basic rights given to whites. Also, blacks were not allowed to hold certain jobs or participate in certain social activities that were predominantly white. "Exclusion of black people was common in government, business, communiyt association, and in most unions (Jaynes and Williams 60)." "Incident" portrays a child who is obviously familiar with and accepting of the exclusion of black people from social situations. By openly demonstrating his dislike for a black child, the white child is excluding the black child from social interaction. " And so I smile, but he poked out/ His tongue, and called me,'Nigger.''' By his actions, the white child demonstrates his preference to only socialize with other white people and to exclude black people from his social circle. "Telephone Conversation" portrays a woman who would like to exclude "very dark" people from renting her property.