I think James Baldwin was trying to explain how a lot of young black people weren’t taught about the reality that they live in. They aren’t taught the actual truth of the American society and how they are viewed. He  also explains how in a way school can brainwash black school with myths and false information about the past and how society really is. He illustrates his own experiences and what he himself learned from them and the difference in how white people were treated and how black people were. Something that stood out to me was how honest and blunt he was, he didn’t sugar coat anything and this made it easy to understand how he was thinking or even how he was feeling.

In the speech, Baldwin mentions New York and how where he grew up in New York was so different compared to the “white world” that was downtown, and this made me think about different parts of Brooklyn where there are areas with predominantly white people, areas with predominantly black people, or areas with predominantly hispanic people. Sometimes I would think why this is the way it is and usually I know the answer but I wish the history of all of that couldve been taught to me, I feel like that would be very interesting. For example, why is this area predominantly asian, what happened in the past that made this happen? Or questions like why does this group of people do these things and this group of people don’t do it as much? I feel like if I were exposed to some type of class that taught New York history I think it would answer many questions that many people have and  could give people a better understanding of why/how things happen today like why places are put in this specific neighborhood and questions like that. I also think it would just be cool to know the history of where you’re from.