Baldwin's 'A Talk To Teachers'

He began to associate all white people as aiming towards one goal: to crush him. Baldwin is subconsciously stereotyping even those who have no say in the political circumstance as crushing him. Past experiences from the bitterness caused by racial

Baldwin noticed countless connections amid Malcolm X and himself. Mutually Baldwin and Malcolm X were irritated, clever black men who by no means let white civilization off the catch. Both were not enthusiastic to linger for white culture to fix the Negro issue. This originated them in cooperation to become conscious that the central white society in America was not rather what they required to be a fraction of. Baldwin disagreed, like Malcolm X white culture in America had to take an excellent extended look at its individual times past. It must have been obligated to come to the reality of slavery and the chronological certainty of the prejudice aligned with blacks. He disputed like Malcolm, that white culture was not anything to imitate and that if the black race was to raise itself up, it would have to pick up itself out of the foremost society. The Civil Rights group was not about incorporation of blacks into white culture. It was about altering white culture by strengthening it to recognize what it had put through to the blacks.

Not long into the essay, Baldwin explains that his father has “been ill for a long time,” but not in the way most people would assume. Rather than being physically ill, his father was mentally ill; constantly reliving his prior experiences. After a time, it becomes clear to Baldwin that it had been the accumulation of the “weight of the white people” that pushed his father to be so cold, and even more, pushed his ancestors to be the same way. On account of the political atmosphere of the time, most people with colored skin lost the confidence needed to live their life without some trace of bitterness. Many, like Baldwin's father, were left without hope because of such discrimination. As a result, the past generations “lived and died in an intolerable bitterness of spirit”. Essentially, Baldwin realizes that the actions of the white men around them helped “kill his father” and “could also kill [him].” At least, that is if he was to continue on the same path as his father and place all the blame on others and the way politics were at the time. They associated their pain and suffering with the high racial tensions of the day and were never able to move on and see past what was right before them. Stuck in a state of misery because of the way society and politics played out at the

In the quote, Baldwin specifically stated, “my real life is in danger”, therefore, when it comes to facing adversity, Baldwin’s hardship securing his own body, remains a lesson. Coates says, “ Americans believe in the reality of “race” as defined, indubitable feature of the natural world. Racism the need to ascribe bone-deep features to people and humiliate, reduce, and destroy them inevitably follows from this inalterable condition” (Coates, 7). This predominantly, shows how precisely the blacks are getting

He talks about how people are treated unfairly because of their race. Baldwin describes how people face discrimination and prejudice because of their skin color, showing how racism affects their lives. He also talks about unfair rules and systems that make life harder for African Americans. For example, Baldwin states “If I can’t walk out and buy a loaf of bread, safely, neither can the housewife, that’s why he’s on the range, learning how to use a pistol, in the land of the free and the home of the brave.” I feel that he's pointing out that even in a country that's supposed to be free and brave, there are still dangers and risks.

Baldwin uses the experiences he faced in New Jersey and the personal relationship with his father to show ethos throughout his essay. At one point in his essay, Baldwin finds himself in New Jersey where segregation still exist. “I learned in New Jersey…one was never looked at but was simply at the mercy of the reflexes the color of one’s skin caused in other people” (68). Here Baldwin expresses how circumstances in New Jersey were like at the time, but also portrays the way people were viewed based on the color of their skin. Baldwin later goes on to mention the year he spent in New Jersey, was the year in which “[he] first contracted some dread, chronic disease” (70). This “disease” Baldwin contracted is not an actual disease, but more of a way in which he begins to feel and see the world around him differently. The disease Baldwin is referring to throughout his entire essay is bitterness. Living in New Jersey caused Baldwin to gain the sense of bitterness that his father had lived with during his life. Baldwin’s bitterness comes from the way he was specifically treated in New Jersey and how he allowed that feeling to affect his behaviors. Baldwin specifically mentions the moment in New Jersey where the white waitress approaches him at the restaurant stating, “We don’t serve Negroes here” (71). At this point we begin to see Baldwin as he acts out in violence by stating, “I wanted her to come close enough for me to get her neck

     As a young child, I think it was hard for Baldwin to relate to his father. His father’s hatred and detachment from, not only society, but from his family, caused confusion for Baldwin. He didn’t understand why his father thought, “white people would do anything to keep a Negro down” (p.56), and why the presence of a white person in his house was a violation. It was in his innocence that he denied his father and his views.

The definition of perspective is possessing a particular attitude toward a specific matter. Unfortunately, people are not always able to obtain their own perspective without being forced a specific one. In life, students are indoctrinated history that society wants them to assimilate in pursuance of controlling their beliefs and views on particular events and topics. In the essay 'A Talk to Teachers', Baldwin implies that that the main purpose of education is to perpetuate the aims of society. Due to this, his advice does hold true, but to a certain extent in which students are still taught false history, but teachers today actually do persuade students to obtain their own perspectives on society.

He was constantly paranoid living in a world with whites and tried to stay away from them as much as possible. It affected not just his life, but his children as well, as when Baldwin actually had a special opportunity in going to see a theater, rare for a black person, but his father pulled him aside “to ask why she was coming, what interest she could possibly have in our house, in a boy like me” (Baldwin 44). It was such a positive opportunity for Baldwin, but his father had to see it in a negative aspect simply because the teacher who proposed the offer was white. Essentially, it was paranoia and his illness that ultimately drove Baldwin’s father to his death, and Baldwin feared he would become paranoid like his father one day as well. Baldwin’s father’s death truly highlighted the racism occurring and the impacts one’s race leaves. With the way white people were glorified and black people seen as inferior, it’s not unnatural for one to despise whites. However, Baldwin’s father's resentment ran so deep it took a toll on his life. Baldwin himself, who didn’t see whites the way his father did, began to develop his paranoia and understand his father’s bitter hatred for

This is depicted when he claims, “For these innocent people have no other hope” (Baldwin 8). By attributing the quality of “innocence” and implying blamelessness, white people are automatically acquitted from their guilty involvement in the subjugation of black people. This exoneration is further supported when Baldwin continues, “They [white people] are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it” (Baldwin 8). In this, Baldwin creates an interchangeable association between “innocence” and “ignorance,” a problematic assertion that I do not agree with.

Yet, what made Baldwin so much like his predecessors was his desire to understand what it meant to be black in America. How do they define themselves? How can they self-determine a better future?

Baldwin wrote about topics such as, racism, poverty, and homosexuality in order to push the boundaries and force people to think in a different way. I don’t think we’re past discrimination and inequality. I don’t think this nation even knows how to accept people who look different than the set of standards white people have chosen in their

“Good Christ, they were ugly! and never have to enter that jail house again and smell that smell…………… they still lived like animals”( Baldwin, 1751). In this quote by James Baldwin describes how white people think towards Black people and how white people described blacks in a derogatory way, such as saying that blacks should not be considered humans. [Americans]*Do you mean all Americans? If so, how do you account for the thousands of young Americans – black and white – who went down south to help spark the civil rights movement?* characterized blacks as animals and wonder what was God thinking when he made

‘A Talk to Teachers’ by James Baldwin published on December 21, 1963 is a very brave and direct message to teachers on how they are contributing to the prejudice in society during that time period. Baldwin’s tone in this essay shifts frequently however, the constant tone that enhances his purpose of this essay is urgency. Baldwin’s urgency to make teachers change the prejudice view on “negros” and the false history that is being taught about African Americans. For he refers to it as “any negro who is born in this country and undergoes the American educational system runs the risk of being schizophrenic.”

     Indeed Baldwin’s letter expressed public awareness but it also consisted of personal elements that only his nephew was intended to understand. “You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a nigger” (Baldwin 243). This statement illustrates the pain that Baldwin feels deep inside. When a person calls someone a nigger it lowers their self-worth and causes them thoughts of despair. The white society can be hurtful to African Americans by underestimating what they say. When someone is constantly being called a nigger they start to believe that they really are what they have always been called. When a person believes they are a nigger they lower their goals and ostracism thinking that they are not accepted and they will never be. Situations like this are hard to grasp unless one lives them like Baldwin did. The fact that