The Emancipation Proclamation is a federal proclamation and executive order from president Abraham Lincoln that made all slaves in the United States free from bondage and ownage. Baldwin’s letter is written on the 100 year anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The significance of the timing of his letter is that the anniversary is supposed to be an indication that African Americans have been free for a very long time, but the opposite is true. Blacks are still discriminated against, treated unequally, and the 100 year anniversary of the freedom of African Americans is actually an ironic milestone for the United States since “the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon.”
Baldwin says in paragraph …show more content…
His attitude is sympathy because in paragraph 5, Baldwin discusses how black people must accept white people because “these innocent people have no other hope” and they are “still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it.” I believe that Baldwin understands why white people are being bystanders and continuing with their day, to the extent that he knows the confusion people white people are in about being innocent because they are not changing the way of life. Baldwin also makes an interesting metaphor later later in the same paragraph about how “the black man has functioned in the white man’s world as a fixed star … and as he moves out of his place, heaven and earth are shaken to their foundations.” Baldwin is talking about how this belief that the black man is inferior to the white man is something that has always been a constant for white men, and many black men, for their entire lives. Baldwin essentially understands the fear white people are developing of this massive change in their lives and by saying that “any upheaval in the universe is terrifying because it so profoundly attacks one’s sense of one’s own reality.” he shows that he has an understanding of the epiphany white people are going through and trying to
Baldwin says in paragraph …show more content…
His attitude is sympathy because in paragraph 5, Baldwin discusses how black people must accept white people because “these innocent people have no other hope” and they are “still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it.” I believe that Baldwin understands why white people are being bystanders and continuing with their day, to the extent that he knows the confusion people white people are in about being innocent because they are not changing the way of life. Baldwin also makes an interesting metaphor later later in the same paragraph about how “the black man has functioned in the white man’s world as a fixed star … and as he moves out of his place, heaven and earth are shaken to their foundations.” Baldwin is talking about how this belief that the black man is inferior to the white man is something that has always been a constant for white men, and many black men, for their entire lives. Baldwin essentially understands the fear white people are developing of this massive change in their lives and by saying that “any upheaval in the universe is terrifying because it so profoundly attacks one’s sense of one’s own reality.” he shows that he has an understanding of the epiphany white people are going through and trying to