In An Era Of Black Rage, By Leonard Pitts

I attended the speech, How To Be Decent And White In An Era Of Black Rage, given by Leonard Pitts. Pitts presented the audience with loads of information pertaining to the book The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin. Personally. I learned quite a few new things from his speech. However, his interpretation of innocence really caught my attention. I learned to think about the use of innocence in The Fire Next Time in a completely new way. Pitts interpreted innocence as being the thing that constitutes the crimes against African Americans. Pitts connected this idea of innocence to many of his own real life experiences with black oppression. I have been made aware of these numerous accounts of racism being portrayed by the media. I just never figured innocence of all things to be the exact cause of these horrible accounts of black oppression.

Many topics in Pitts’ speech are relevant to The Fire Next Time.

One of the many ideas presented in both was. The idea that far too many African Americans are setup to fail right from the beginning of their lives. What Pitts and Baldwin mean by this is, that African Americans are put in areas with high amounts of crime, poor school districts and very few opportunities to succeed. In the book Baldwin talks about similar disadvantages he faced growing up. The kids at his school were drinking in the hallways and accepting that they could never make it out of the ghetto. Baldwin’s own parents constantly tried to convince him to quit school and go to work, because they too believed he would never be able to succeed. Baldwin also talks about how all of the disadvantages drove the kids in his area to the Avenue. The Avenue was where the pimps, whores and presumably drug dealers were. Thus, ensuring that once one the kids from Baldwin’s are ended up on the Avenue, they had no future after that. Additionally, Pitts stated that this very same issue is still relevant

today.
I found myself in agreement with a majority of what Pitts had to say during his speech. However, I didn’t entirely agree with one of the statements Pitts made. Towards the beginning of Pitts’ speech, he brought up that he believes the race issues presented in the book still feel relevant in our modern era. Being that I am white. I can’t say I would know what it’s like to face the challenges that African Americans face on a daily basis. Anyhow, I do not entirely disagree that these issues of black oppression are still relevant today, but I don’t believe they are as extreme as Pitts portrays them to be. I believe America as a whole has made great progress in becoming a more racially fair and just nation. African Americans have gained many rights and are being given many more opportunities to become successful since Baldwin’s book was published.
I have noticed many efforts made by my hometown educational system to help African Americans achieve success. My high school had meetings and groups specifically designed to give the African American students extra help with any aspect of their lives. whether it was help with school work, advice for getting into college, counseling/guidance with problems outside of school and/or anything else the students may have needed. I don’t think such programs like this were offered in any schools around America fifty years ago, but now they’re a lot more abundant. Additionally, the United States government is currently being run by an African American man. This is clear evidence that progress towards equality has been made over the years.
Overall I found Pitts’ speech very enlightening for a multitude of reasons. I learned how to better understand the way Baldwin interprets innocence. As well as how Pitts believes examples of this very same innocence still exist. I was able to make connections between the speech and Baldwin’s book. Additionally, I found myself agreeing with many of his main points.