Difficulty Paper

In James Baldwin’s “A Talk To Teachers” he talks about many different subjects many of which still apply today. He talks about what teachers should be teaching students as a way to build them and prepare them for society. He also talks about how “Negroes” are viewed in society and how they should ignore what they are told that they are, become educated and discover what they truly are. 

This story was written in 1963 and he expressed the misconceptions of the society he sees during this period of time. He talks about blacks and their relationships with white after being freed. He speaks about the different realities that “Negroes” face “On the one hand he is born in the shadow of the stars and stripes and he is assured it represents a nation which has never lost a war. He pledges allegiance to that flag which guarantees “liberty and justice for all.” He is part of a country in which anyone can become President, and so forth. But on the other hand he is also assured by his country and his countrymen that he has never contributed anything to civilization-that his past is nothing more than a record of humiliations gladly endured. He is assured by the republic that he, his father, his mother, and his ancestors were happy, shiftless, watermelon-eating darkics who loved Mr. Charlie and Miss Ann, that the value he has as a black man is proven by one thing only-his de- votion to white people.” He explains the different realities blacks actually faced after the 13th amendment was passed. Blacks were expected to to be patriotic, yet in the eyes of society he has contributed to nothing in that age and the past that his mother, father, grandparents went through was something that they wanted to endure. 

This entire paper was something difficult to read. To think that 56 years ago, not even a century has passed and Blacks had to face that kind of treatment and had to be in a society that had that kind of mindset and grow up thinking that this was okay, that being treated like that was a normal way of life. Though society today has improved farther along today compared to 60 years ago there is still prominent racism and segregation that still hasn’t changed even today.