Down At The Cross By James Baldwin Essay

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The two letters that were arranged by James Baldwin in the late 20th century, The Fire Next Time, are significant pieces of African American literature that touched on the topic of social injustice in America. The themes that consistent throughout the book are white innocence, integration vs separatism, love and forgiveness, limitations on mobility, beauty, escapism, and repressed pain, however, integration vs separation is the most recurring theme in the book. After the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, social change would increase by a small amount, giving authority to people who have hatred for other races and not entitling human rights for the people that have been persecuted. Integration vs Segregation is a prevalent theme that is …show more content…

Therefore, reacting to this sort of energy with viciousness appeared like a characteristic answer for a significant number of Baldwin's companions. There were no "moral barriers" amongst him and this way of life, since profound quality had been so skewed by the power elements between African Americans and their white comrades that he didn't feel it would fundamentally be unethical to wind up a criminal, and he didn't need white individuals to characterize his personality and allocate him constraints. (Baldwin 23). In the book, White Man Listen, Wright argues that for the Africans who had been “westernized” felt that they were oppressed. The West would deny the responsibility of what they did to “make every white man alive on earth today a criminal” (Wright 653). Back then, men were responsible for consequences of their actions. The West needs to accept

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