Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'
I saw the whole of Baltimore
To start, the speaker’s age and size is noted, stating that he is eight years old and small. The Baltimorean looking straight at him was no different in size or age, and in the speaker’s eyes he and the other person were the  same  and there was no difference between them at that moment. It ties in with the rest of the stanza where the difference in the two people is stated and, along with the “heart-filled, head-filled with glee,” serves to further contrast the joy and equality the speaker feels with the destructive and differentiating comment the Baltimorean makes.