Currently, the Black community in the United States is undergoing their Third World War under the banner of the Black Lives Matter Movement. This is because Blacks have been fighting for two hundred years and are still fighting to obtain freedom and equality. Blacks were separated from the White people even after President Abraham Lincoln declared their freedom in 1863. Jim Crow laws were later introduced which enforced racial segregation in the South between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. James Baldwin’s “A Letter to My Nephew” discusses the modern inequality between the Blacks and whites in a society dominated by the latter. It was written during the one hundred year anniversary
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In Baldwin’s view, white people are trapped in a superiority complex throughout history, affecting the Black American generations because Whites are still ignorant. They should educate themselves about it, but one can understand that when something is just the same from generation to generation, it just becomes normal. Baldwin didn’t have children so his nephew is his familial link to the next generation. Baldwin uses his nephew in the letter because he says “I have known both[ his nephew and his brother] all your lives and have carried your daddy in my arms and on my shoulders, kissed him and spanked him and watch him learn to walk.” (Baldwin 27). Baldwin’s dead brother is similar to Baldwin’s nephew, the son of his brother. Baldwin used to take care of his brother and he sees somewhat the reflection of his brother through his nephew but more importantly the nephew’s young age makes him a good example of how the Black American children should treat the White people community. White people are innocent and ignorant, we should not blame them but accept their lack of education. This is Baldwin’s ideology because “they cannot be released from it” (Baldwin 29), meaning that White people can never change their poor mentality of treating the Blacks as if they are fresh meat to sell or to eat for free. Blacks are exploited by Whites taking …show more content…
But today’s society is still built upon the exploitation and slavery of the past, which created today’s economic power. Whites have been using Blacks to increase in power which means money. As Baldwin says, “in this case the danger in minds and hearts of most White Americans is the loss of their identity, try to imagine how would feel if you woke up one morning to find the sun shivering and all the stars aflame” (Balwin 29). One can clearly see the mess created by Whites, exploiting not only the Blacks ancestors, but the present Black community by making Blacks economics victims of the wealthy ones, the Whites. An example of this victims are the White people not paying they taxes but Black people does have to pay taxes. Baldwins whole point of creating this letter is not for the Blacks to fight physically for the rights already given to them but to accept the injustice create by the unconsciousness of the Whites generation. At the same time Baldwin mentions that the Black American children are not guilty of being born Blacks, but unfortunately Blacks are invisible to White people,“You were not expected to aspire to excellence. You were expected to make peace with mediocrity.” (Baldwin 28). Meaning that through his nephew Baldwin
In Baldwin’s view, white people are trapped in a superiority complex throughout history, affecting the Black American generations because Whites are still ignorant. They should educate themselves about it, but one can understand that when something is just the same from generation to generation, it just becomes normal. Baldwin didn’t have children so his nephew is his familial link to the next generation. Baldwin uses his nephew in the letter because he says “I have known both[ his nephew and his brother] all your lives and have carried your daddy in my arms and on my shoulders, kissed him and spanked him and watch him learn to walk.” (Baldwin 27). Baldwin’s dead brother is similar to Baldwin’s nephew, the son of his brother. Baldwin used to take care of his brother and he sees somewhat the reflection of his brother through his nephew but more importantly the nephew’s young age makes him a good example of how the Black American children should treat the White people community. White people are innocent and ignorant, we should not blame them but accept their lack of education. This is Baldwin’s ideology because “they cannot be released from it” (Baldwin 29), meaning that White people can never change their poor mentality of treating the Blacks as if they are fresh meat to sell or to eat for free. Blacks are exploited by Whites taking …show more content…
But today’s society is still built upon the exploitation and slavery of the past, which created today’s economic power. Whites have been using Blacks to increase in power which means money. As Baldwin says, “in this case the danger in minds and hearts of most White Americans is the loss of their identity, try to imagine how would feel if you woke up one morning to find the sun shivering and all the stars aflame” (Balwin 29). One can clearly see the mess created by Whites, exploiting not only the Blacks ancestors, but the present Black community by making Blacks economics victims of the wealthy ones, the Whites. An example of this victims are the White people not paying they taxes but Black people does have to pay taxes. Baldwins whole point of creating this letter is not for the Blacks to fight physically for the rights already given to them but to accept the injustice create by the unconsciousness of the Whites generation. At the same time Baldwin mentions that the Black American children are not guilty of being born Blacks, but unfortunately Blacks are invisible to White people,“You were not expected to aspire to excellence. You were expected to make peace with mediocrity.” (Baldwin 28). Meaning that through his nephew Baldwin