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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.

 

In James Baldwin’s text, he talks about all the things he has learned and what he is going to teach the next generation even though he isn’t a school teacher. He talks about how to experience and how the country he lived in was corrupted with hate toward black people. Baldwin talks a lot about how schools in his day don’t teach the real history of the country. He talks about t

How white people learn anything and how their history was a lying. He also talked about how blacks were beaten, sprayed, and even bombed even while white people believe in Christianity.

 

There were many parts of his text that interest me some of those parts was when he talked about  ”What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors. It’s astounding to me, for ex- ample, that so many people really appear to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn’t stay there any longer and had to go someplace else to make it. That’s all. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts.” What he said was true that people forget why they had to find the new world even though it wasn’t really new. This angers me because when the history books look at what happens they leave out the bad parts and everyone just remember the hero of the story like Christopher Columbus but forget, he killed native Indians he took their land and called it the new world. I think that the United States, in general, forgets the main problem of part of history where they built their land on the death of other African Americans, Native Americans and many more.

In the article by James Baldwin, a lot of things were mentioned. What I found confusing was how it talked about education then went straight to racism. It was hard for me to find the connection. I feel like the connection was not learning racism in school. It talks about depression as well. It’s kind of boring as well. What makes it boring is the fact that it jumps from one idea to another and as soon as you try to make a connection then boom it jumps into another topic. When I was reading the section where it stated

Hey everyone– great work on your presentations! These things are due for Thursday:

1. First of all, fill out “collaborative evaluation form” for your groups
2.  Read and annotate “A Talk to Teachers” by James Baldwin HERE and then write a “difficulty paper” of about 300 words. In a difficulty paper, you focus in one one or two passages that you find difficult or confusing (quote them!) and EXPLAIN in detail why you found them difficult or confusing (or upsetting or boring.) Try to get to the heart of where you found it difficult. Dig deeply! Be as specific as you can about what your mind was doing as you read those sections.

This is a low-stakes assignment, meaning I’m not grading you on your grammar, just on you getting it done and you putting thought into it!

When reading all three stories I couldn’t find what made them alike other than experience with education. Although, the second time I read. I paid close attention. As I read I noticed how all three of the writers took initiative and responsibility for their own education no matter the circumstances and what they went through or were going through. in Shania’s writing she said ” I had to switch up quick and take advantage of the opportunities in front of me” . This shows how she understood the fact that she needed to take action to better herself to do better. She took initiative because she understood she needed to change. Then in Rexhep’s reading he stated “I am responsible to show up to my classes and pass these classes” . He is taking initiative because he saw how he is responsible for his own things. Despite his surroundings he knew it was up to him to do better. Now for my reading I claimed ” no one cares about your education more than you”. Meaning you need to take initiative for your own education. This was me realizing I needed to do that no matter the environment I was in. Overall, the problem we all  had in common was lack in education . there was a lot of inconveniences  in our way for education but despite all that we took initiative to do better for ourselves. No matter the issue whether it was the struggle school put us in it’s self or choice’s we made that didn’t help at all.

THAT’S IT! WE’RE NOW IN NAMM 519

Hello and welcome to English 1101: Fight for Your Rights! This is a Learning Community course, taught alongside Kerin Coughlin’s Law 1101 course. Same students, different content (mostly. We have a little overlap, as you’ll see.)

This is the website for English! Please get familiar with it. Here, you’ll find all of your homework assignments, and above, where it says “Units,” you’ll see the major assignments for the class (they’re not all up yet, but they will be.)

You are responsible for signing up for this website. By next week, all of your homework will be posted here– and I don’t accept late homework, so if you’re having trouble signing in, come talk to me ASAP!!