In this poem, Giovanni both acknowledges and questions the stereotype. One stereotype of African American childhood is that it’s filled with impoverishment and sadness. In “Walking Down Park,” the speaker takes this questioning even further, asking what life was like before Europeans enslaved African people, finding a time in which Africans were not discouraged from following their dreams, and resurrecting that version of herself and others. Instead, she questions the messages she hears. Like Giovanni, this speaker does not allow negative messaging to stop her from dreaming. At the same time, before the speaker learned this, they had plenty of dreams.
This poem begins with the speaker acknowledging the message that “black people aren’t / suppose to dream” (Lines 3-4).
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