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James Baldwin's work about racism
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Literary analysis of james baldwin racism
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I attended the speech, How To Be Decent And White In An Era Of Black Rage, given by Leonard Pitts. Pitts presented the audience with loads of information pertaining to the book The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin. Personally. I learned quite a few new things from his speech. However, his interpretation of innocence really caught my attention. I learned to think about the use of innocence in The Fire Next Time in a completely new way. Pitts interpreted innocence as being the thing that constitutes the crimes against African Americans. Pitts connected this idea of innocence to many of his own real life experiences with black oppression. I have been made aware of these numerous accounts of racism being portrayed by the media. I just never figured innocence of all things to be the exact cause of these horrible accounts of black oppression. …show more content…
One of the many ideas presented in both was. The idea that far too many African Americans are setup to fail right from the beginning of their lives. What Pitts and Baldwin mean by this is, that African Americans are put in areas with high amounts of crime, poor school districts and very few opportunities to succeed. In the book Baldwin talks about similar disadvantages he faced growing up. The kids at his school were drinking in the hallways and accepting that they could never make it out of the ghetto. Baldwin’s own parents constantly tried to convince him to quit school and go to work, because they too believed he would never be able to succeed. Baldwin also talks about how all of the disadvantages drove the kids in his area to the Avenue. The Avenue was where the pimps, whores and presumably drug dealers were. Thus, ensuring that once one the kids from Baldwin’s are ended up on the Avenue, they had no future after that. Additionally, Pitts stated that this very same issue is still relevant
Baldwin makes certain readers understand the states of the issue at once; his essay starts by describing his father’s funeral in the aftermath of the Harlem riots of 1943. Baldwin states, “As we drove him to the graveyard, the spoils of injustice, anarchy, discountent, and hatred were all around us. It seemed to me that God himself had devised, to mark my father’s end, the most sustained and brutally dissonant of codas” (63). Yet as Baldwin mourned the death of his father, he celebrated the birth of his yo...
This week I read the short article on Alan Locke’s, “Enter the New Negro”. This article is discussing the Negro problem in depth. “By shedding the chrysalis of the Negro problem, we are achieving something like spiritual emancipation”. Locke believes that if we get rid of whatever is holding us back we would gain something renewing and beautiful.
The stories that the author told were very insightful to what life was like for an African American living in the south during this time period. First the author pointed out how differently blacks and whites lived. She stated “They owned the whole damn town. The majority of whites had it made in the shade. Living on easy street, they inhabited grand houses ranging from turn-of-the-century clapboards to historics”(pg 35). The blacks in the town didn’t live in these grand homes, they worked in them. Even in today’s time I can drive around, and look at the differences between the living conditions in the areas that are dominated by whites, and the areas that are dominated by blacks. Racial inequalities are still very prevalent In today’s society.
Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” is an eye opening story. Ellison introduces us to a black nameless citizen. All the nameless citizen wants is to be acknowledged and to please the white men, which is strange given the white common men are forcing him to brutally fight his black peers. Ellison’s story is focusing on the ignorance of African Americans due to the constant deception of the white supremacist. (Ellison)
David W. Blight's book Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory and the American Civil War, is an intriguing look back into the Civil War era which is very heavily studied but misunderstood according to Blight. Blight focuses on how memory shapes history Blight feels, while the Civil War accomplished it goal of abolishing slavery, it fell short of its ultimate potential to pave the way for equality. Blight attempts to prove that the Civil War does little to bring equality to blacks. This book is a composite of twelve essays which are spilt into three parts. The Preludes describe blacks during the era before the Civil War and their struggle to over come slavery and describes the causes, course and consequences of the war. Problems in Civil War memory describes black history and deals with how during and after the war Americans seemed to forget the true meaning of the war which was race. And the postludes describes some for the leaders of black society and how they are attempting to keep the memory and the real meaning of the Civil War alive and explains the purpose of studying historical memory.
Baldwin gives a vivid sketch of the depressing conditions he grew up on in Fifth Avenue, Uptown by using strong descriptive words. He makes use of such word choices in his beginning sentences when he reflects back to his house which is now replaced by housing projects and “one of those stunted city trees is snarling where our [his] doorway used to be” (Baldwin...
As Elie Wiesel once stated, “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented” (“Elie Wiesel Quote”). Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow, which discusses criminal justice and its role in mass incarceration, promotes a similar idea regarding silence when America’s racial caste system needs to be ended; however, Alexander promotes times when silence would actually be better for “the tormented.” The role of silence and lack of silence in the criminal justice system both contribute to wrongly accused individuals and growing populations behind bars.
The book Black Hearts begins by painting an awful picture of a crime scene that was reported to 1st platoon Bravo Company of the 1-502nd 101st Airborne Division. The soldiers that are sent to investigate find that an entire family has been murdered, the daughter had been raped, and someone attempted to set the house ablaze, the family had all been killed in a seemingly brutal execution, while investigating one of the NCOs found a shotgun shell which he thought was strange because most Iraqis do not use shotguns. He compiled the evidence to be sent up to higher and they chalked it up as another Iraqi on Iraqi sectarian execution. Then the book takes us to before any of that happened, the book focuses on a battalion in the 101st Airborne Division, leading the battalion was Ltc. Kunk, he ruled with an Iron fist and was very hard on his subordinates. Within the battalion the book focuses primarily on Bravo Company, who was headed by Cpt. Goodwin. Goodwin was a competent leader but Ltc. Kunk had a reputation for being very hard on his company commanders and having very little faith in their abilities. Pre-deployment while at JRTC (Joint Readiness Training Center) he would explode on his commanders, and tell them that they were doing everything wrong, criticizing and degrading them. This wore down on his commanders and especially Goodwin, Goodwin would begin to second guess his decisions, making him less effective as a leader and making him make more mistakes than before, this would make Kunk even more upset and he would berate him even more than he would in the first place. The battalion would be deploying into the “Triangle of Death” a patch of ground south of Baghdad. It ran along one of the major highways that led into Bag...
Reading my first book for this class, I was really looking forward to it. The book, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, is an interesting book because it touches base on mass incarceration and the caste system. Figuring out that society is on a war on drugs and racism in the justice system is upsetting, and yet interesting. Michelle does a really nice job in organizing the book and presenting the plot. The fact that this book informs and explains arguments, what is happening with the justices system is complete true. Our lives would look complete different; and some of her points are happening. People do not realize getting incarcerated will take some of rights away. This essay will reflect on the book its self, answer questions,
Baldwin and his ancestors share this common rage because of the reflections their culture has had on the rest of society, a society consisting of white men who have thrived on using false impressions as a weapon throughout American history. Baldwin gives credit to the fact that no one can be held responsible for what history has unfolded, but he remains restless for an explanation about the perception of his ancestors as people. In Baldwin?s essay, his rage becomes more directed as the ?power of the white man? becomes relevant to the misfortune of the American Negro (Baldwin 131). This misfortune creates a fire of rage within Baldwin and the American Negro. As Baldwin?s American Negro continues to build the fire, the white man builds an invisible wall around himself to avoid confrontation about the actions of his ?forefathers? (Baldwin 131). Baldwin?s anger burns through his other emotions as he writes about the enslavement of his ancestors and gives the reader a shameful illusion of a Negro slave having to explai...
Helen’s physical appearance is a sight for sore eyes, her style of dressing in a fancy manner can really set her apart from the rest of the crowd, and because helen dresses and grooms herself so proper, she is seen as a lady with pride. She can also show off her delicate smooth skin, that almost seems flawless to a limit. Not only her skin is flawless but she has an award winning smile that can be as bright as diamonds. Helen came from a poor family who lives in the ghetto that seems to have a close relationship with everyone of their relatives, who would do anything to help out a member of the family. Madea is an example of the type of family member that will do anything in her power to help out a member of the family. Growing up in the projects gave helen a sense of the real world and how love and compassion is a valued asset of life. Helen was acknowledged with very little education, although she does seem to be able to uphold an elegant and legit conversation. Even with Helens great talking skills, she has not held a job for about eighteen long years; other than the occasional household wife position. Her past experience from her marriage stops her from moving on and trusting any men in a relationship, such as Orlando, how she mistreated him and doubted his humble personality when his heart was pure the whole way. The tone used from Helen throughout the whole movie was a tone of insecurity, with a hint of doubtfulness in everybodys caring personality towards her. The way she thinks of herself gives her very little confidence in the way she sees life, and because of that her tone automatically changes from a proud wife, to a woman who has been hurt multiple of times.
In Brent Staples’ "Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space," Staples describes the issues, stereotypes, and criticisms he faces being a black man in public surroundings. Staples initiates his perspective by introducing the audience in to thinking he is committing a crime, but eventually reveals how the actions taken towards him are because of the fear linked to his labelled stereotypes of being rapists, gangsters and muggers. Staples continues to unfold the audience from a 20 year old experience and sheds light onto how regardless of proving his survival compared to the other stereotypical blacks with his education levels and work ethics being in the modern era, he is still in the same plight. Although Staples relates such burdens through his personal experiences rather than directly revealing the psychological impacts such actions have upon African Americans with research, he effectively uses emotion to explain the social effects and challenges they have faced to avoid causing a ruckus with the “white American” world while keeping his reference up to date and accordingly to his history.
At several points in the story, Baldwin emphasizes the quickness at which Harlem residents fall to the pull of evil. The children of Harlem are de...
The essay “Notes of a Native Son” takes place at a very volatile time in history. The story was written during a time of hate and discrimination toward African Americans in the United States. James Baldwin, the author of this work is African American himself. His writing, along with his thoughts and ideas were greatly influenced by the events happening at the time. At the beginning of the essay, Baldwin makes a point to mention that it was the summer of 1943 and that race riots were occurring in Detroit. The story itself takes place in Harlem, a predominantly black area experiencing much of the hatred and inequalities that many African-Americans were facing throughout the country. This marks the beginning of a long narrative section that Baldwin introduces his readers to before going into any analysis at all.
According to James Baldwin’s “My Dungeon Shook: A Letter to My Nephew” African Americans cannot obtain their piece of the American Dream. Baldwin wrote a letter to his nephew in hope of guiding him through life. Baldwin had many words of wisdom to share, mostly words provoked by pain and anger. Baldwin wanted to teach his nephew about the cruelty of society. His main point was to teach his nephew not to believe the white man and his words. He wanted to encourage his nephew to succeed in life but not to expect the unassailable. By believing the white man one can not succeed but by knowing where one comes from will lead to success was the foundation of Baldwin’s message (243-246).