SOURCE: "Etheridge Knight: Two Fields of Combat," in Concerning Poetry, Vol. 16, No. 2, Fall, 1983, pp. 23-5.

In the following essay, Crowder discusses the theme of racism in Knight's "2 Poems for Black Relocation Centers."

Etheridge Knight's "2 Poems for Black Relocation Centers" have the standard ingredients of social protest poetry. Knight presents two case histories of black men victimized by white racist America: the first concerns a worker

Dust jacket for Knight's 1980 book of poems, which takes its title from the Book of Job: "Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of troubles."

in the military field of combat; the second is about an industrial worker in Detroit. Both die prematurely and senselessly, following bouts of neglect, betrayal, and defeat. If taken at face value, these companion poems might be seen as variations on the it's-tough-to-be-black-in-America theme. Yet I believe that in them Knight is...