When James Baldwin says “the world is larger,” he attempts to emphasize that there’s a lot more to discover in this world than what the government has presented to us. In fact, the overall message that James was trying to convey is that nobody should feel detained by the mental chains of the government, despite the economic or political strength of an administration or authority. He says “I would teach him [the student] that he doesn’t have to be bound by the expediencies of any given administration, any given policy, any given morality; that he has the right and the necessity to examine everything,” because he wants people to understand people they have more power in their life than what the government tells them. He emphasizes this message especially for African Americans, a group of people that have been getting oppressed nearly since the beginning of time.
I agree with James’ point mentioned in the article because I too believe that I have the obligation to uncover the “not-so-hidden” truths that society decides to keep away from us. I would also be fascinated to know more about the history related to the people that overthrew our country (aka white people). Before reading this article, I was never aware that white people had segments of their history they were hiding from the public as well. I thought all of their history (somewhat similar to black people) was fully uncovered. However, I was mistaken, with this new information discovered in my mind, I would hope schools across the globe shed more light on this topic, so there aren’t any more children oblivious to certain segments of history, like myself.
