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About methods of reducing prejudice and discrimination
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For years upon years, discrimination against minorities has been prevalent in American society. However the trend of discriminating the minority is not bound to one nation, it is a tendency that is common in people looking to project their sense of inferiority onto those who possess differences that are intrinsically irremovable to one's being- skin color and sexuality, just to name a few. The idea of capitalizing against the minority is on full display in James Baldwin's "Equal in Paris" as we see Baldwin's escape from American Discrimination towards a prejudice France. In the aforementioned piece, Baldwin articulates the ability for hate and contempt to transcend nations, while the police state capitalize on his eight days in jail, in order …show more content…
to display how prejudice can assume different customs, shapes and roles in society. Baldwin differentiates his experiences in America to that of Paris' in order to expose the nature of Prejudice across national borders.
In America, Baldwin was prepared for the implications of racial discrimination that he faced on a daily basis; however, he rationalizes that the discrimination that he faced in Paris was of a different breed, unlike anything that America had offered to him. In fact, this was more of an attack against the accused criminal, regardless of how petty the crime. Baldwin explicitly states "It was a strange feeling, in this situation, after a year in Paris, to discover that my weapons would never again serve me as they had." Therefore, as Baldwin explains how he feels unshielded versus the prejudice of Paris, the audience may observe how fundamentally different Paris' form of prejudice is than that of the Jim Crow racial discrimination found in America. Meanwhile, the reader is reminded of how quite discerning the intensity of prejudice is when implemented in unfamiliar forms. This, in progression, exposes the cunning demeanor of prejudice possesses as even though Baldwin had been experienced with facing judgment for his race, he was utterly unprepared and alarmed by the attacks he would go on to face due to the allegations that he stole sheets from the hotel. Quite literally, one may observe Baldwin's inability to escape prejudice in its entirety since it is not bounded to any shape or custom, rather it conforms to insecurities of the people of …show more content…
its origin. Furthermore, the justice system shows the perpetuation of the prejudice against the accused. As Baldwin journeys through his time in prison he sees the ineffective Paris penal system, which is indicative of the perpetuation of systemic attacks against those who were accused. The system was slow, ineffective, and, as the other inmates teased, riddled with inconsistencies. The system of prisoner placement did not even contain the ability to divide inmates by severity of alleged crime, Baldwin claims "prisoners whose last initial is A, B, or C are always sent to Fresnes; everybody else is sent to a prison called […] La Santé […] infinitely more unbearable than Fresnes." Thus, it becomes ever more evident that the penal system has every lack of regard for the crime, although nevertheless segregates and treats all crime equally under a slow judicial process. The penal system's inability to process prisoners on severity of crime is indicative of the prejudice found in Paris as they process petty crime with harsh treatment adjacent to how they treat extreme crime. In addition, the Paris penal organization is so tremendously prejudiced against the accused that Parisians "did not wish to know that their society could be counted on to produce, probably in greater and greater numbers, a whole body of people for whom crime was the only possible career." The prisoners from Paris were so forcibly removed from society, due to the prejudice against the accused, that once they were declared as a criminal they were suddenly segregated into a life of crime. Baldwin describes the discrimination he finds against those accused of a crime since the life of an accused criminal that becomes second class so swiftly, so deftly, that they fall into a life entrapped by a penal system that is apparently independent of justice. One may ponder for what reason would a society not incorporate innocence into sentencing the accused, however prejudice does not bother with virtue; rather, prejudice acts independently of what is right and moves to lessen the insecurities of those who need a scapegoat to feel more superior. Toward the end of Baldwin's stay in jail, he came to the realization of the universality of prejudice through the eventual comparison of the inmates reaction to the penal system to his of the Jim Crow system, in addition to the court mocking the prisoners.
In the case that Baldwin describes he makes a comparison that depicts those being immune and un-phased to the system since they are accustomed to jail and segregation from society, which is adjacent to Baldwin's sense of immunity from the discrimination of Jim Crow America. The court serves as an exemplification of society's treatment towards the accused as they consistently mock and laugh at those serving time for an accused crime. The laughter is poignant to the epiphany that Baldwin faces as the court dismisses his case, in fact he writes the laughter "could only remind me of the laughter I had heard at home, laughter which I had sometimes deliberately elicited." The reader, hereafter, becomes aware that the laughter that Baldwin face is not a national problem with France, especially in Paris; rather, the laughter is under the umbrella of prejudice that pursues society deeper and further than national borders. Thus, a revelation projected onto the reader that vitriol and prejudice is in fact
universal. Ultimately, Baldwin's exposed his purpose of highlighting that while one may escape a certain caste system, one that segregates citizens based on their circumstance- such as skin color and poverty-, one may never truly getaway from the system of discrimination. One may only defy a specific branch of prejudice to find one of which they are unaccustomed and unfamiliar. Baldwin's "Equal in Paris" journeys the audience through his time within the penal system to expose how prejudice seeps into societies through different forms and customs, as he faces partiality and judgement based on the fact that he was accused for a petty crime of stealing bed sheets. Therefore, much like in America's Jim Crow system, discrimination acts without rhyme or reason which displays the function of prejudice, rather that a specific input of it- for instance racism or the segregation of accused criminals from society-, in order to see the evil at work more clearly.
King reminds the reader that racial injustices engulf the community by stating, “Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the united states. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatments in the courts. There have been many bombings of Negro homes and Churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are hard, brutal facts.”
James Baldwin lived during an extremely tumultuous time where hatred ruled the country. Race riots, beatings, and injustice flooded the cities that he, as well as most African Americans, was forced to live with every day. Many people, out of fright, suppressed their opposition to the blatant inequalities of the nation. However, some people refused to let themselves be put down solely because of their skin color and so they publicly announced their opposition. One such person was James Baldwin, who voiced his opinion through writing short stories about his experiences growing up as a black man. In order to convey to the reader the unbearable nature of this troubled era, he traces his feelings of hatred for his father and his hatred towards society, which transform as he evaluates his experiences.
In 1955 a civil rights activist by the name of James Baldwin wrote his famous essay “Notes of a Native Son”. James Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York during a time where racial tensions where high all throughout the United States. In this essay he highlights these tension and his experience’s regarding them, while also giving us an insight of his upbringing. Along with this we get to see his relationship with a figure of his life, his father or more accurately his stepfather. In the essay James Baldwin says “This fight begins, however, in the heart and it now had been laid to my charge to keep my own heart free of hatred and despair”. This is a very powerful sentence that I believe
From slavery being legal, to its abolishment and the Civil Rights Movement, to where we are now in today’s integrated society, it would seem only obvious that this country has made big steps in the adoption of African Americans into American society. However, writers W.E.B. Du Bois and James Baldwin who have lived and documented in between this timeline of events bringing different perspectives to the surface. Du Bois first introduced an idea that Baldwin would later expand, but both authors’ works provide insight to the underlying problem: even though the law has made African Americans equal, the people still have not.
Although Baldwin’s letter was addressed to his nephew, he intended for society as a whole to be affected by it. “This innocent country set you down in a getto in which, in fact, it intended that you should parish”(Baldwin 244). This is an innocent country, innocent only because they know not what they do. They discriminate the African American by expecting them to be worthless, by not giving them a chance to prove their credibility. Today African Americans are considered to be disesteemed in society. They are placed in this class before they are even born just like Royalty obtains their class before they are even conceived. We may think that this is a paradox but when d...
---. “White Man’s Guilt.” 1995 James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998: 722-727.
James Baldwin was a man who wrote an exceptional amount of essays. He enticed audiences differing in race, sexuality, ethnic background, government preference and so much more. Each piece is a circulation of emotions and a teeter-totter on where he balances personal experiences and worldly events to the way you feel. Not only did he have the ability to catch readers’ attention through writing, but he also appeared on television a few times.
James Baldwin, an African American author born in Harlem, was raised by his violent step-father, David. His father was a lay preacher who hated whites and felt that all whites would be judged as they deserve by a vengeful God. Usually, the father's anger was directed toward his son through violence. Baldwin's history, in part, aids him in his insight of racism within the family. He understands that racists are not born, but rather racist attitudes and behaviors are learned in the early stages of childhood. Baldwin's Going to Meet the Man is a perfect example of his capability to analyze the growth of a innocent child to a racist.
The works of James Baldwin are directly related to the issues of racism, religion and personal conflicts, and sexuality and masculinity during Baldwin's years.James Baldwin's works, both fiction and nonfiction were in some instance a direct reflection his life. Through close interpretation you can combine his work to give a "detailed" look into his actual life. However since most writings made by him are all considered true works of literature we can't consider them to be of autobiographical nature.
The Civil War was fought over the “race problem,” to determine the place of African-Americans in America. The Union won the war and freed the slaves. However, when President Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation, a hopeful promise for freedom from oppression and slavery for African-Americans, he refrained from announcing the decades of hardship that would follow to obtaining the new won “freedom”. Over the course of nearly a century, African-Americans would be deprived and face adversity to their rights. They faced something perhaps worse than slavery; plagued with the threat of being lynched or beat for walking at the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite the addition of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Bill of Rights, which were made to protect the citizenship of the African-American, thereby granting him the protection that each American citizen gained in the Constitution, there were no means to enforce these civil rights. People found ways to go around them, and thus took away the rights of African-Americans. In 1919, racial tensions between the black and white communities in Chicago erupted, causing a riot to start. This resulted from the animosity towards the growing black community of Chicago, which provided competition for housing and jobs. Mistrust between the police and black community in Chicago only lent violence as an answer to their problems, leading to a violent riot. James Baldwin, an essayist working for true civil rights for African-Americans, gives first-hand accounts of how black people were mistreated, and conveys how racial tensions built up antagonism in his essays “Notes of a Native Son,” and “Down at the Cross.”
Baldwin being visits an unfamiliar place that was mostly populated by white people; they were very interested in the color of his skin. The villagers had never seen a black person before, which makes the villager
In the early twentieth century, the United States was undergoing a dramatic social change. Slavery had been abolished decades before, but the southern states were still attempting to restrict social interaction among people of different races. In particular, blacks were subject to special Jim Crow laws which restricted their rights and attempted to keep the race inferior to whites. Even beyond these laws, however, blacks were feeling the pressure of prejudice. In the legal system, blacks were not judged by a group of their peers; rather, they were judged by a group of twelve white men. In serious court cases involving capital offenses, the outcome always proved to be a guilty verdict. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the plot revolves around a Depression-era court case of a black man accused of raping a white woman. The defendant Tom Robinson is presumed guilty because of one thing alone: the color of his skin.
In paragraph three of James Baldwin's 'Stranger in the Village' (1955), he alludes to emotions that are significant, dealing with conflicts that arise in the Swiss village. Of these emotions are two, astonishment and outrage, which represent the relevant feelings of Baldwin, an American black man. These two emotions, for Baldwin's ancestors, create arguments about the 'Negro' and their rights to be considered 'human beings' (Baldwin 131). Baldwin, an American Negro, feels undeniable rage toward the village because of the misconception of his complexion, a misconception that denies Baldwin human credibility and allows him to be perceived as a 'living wonder' (129).
He creates this tone to convey his purpose to the reader which is that prejudice is still an ongoing problem in American society, and that it will never be a thing of the past. Staples gives many personal anecdotes that are very somber; the readers are affected by this because they can emphasize and feel the prejudice that the victim, Brent Staples, faces. Although Staples is never delighted with the positions he is in, he never shows his resentment. In one part of the article, Staples said, “It is not altogether clear to me how I reached the ripe old age of twenty-two without being conscious of the lethality nighttime pedestrians attributed to me.” (Staples, 2). Staples attributes that he knows many people in American society automatically assume that he is a threat to “their” society because of
Baldwin (played by Matthew McConaughey) took the case of the Africans, who also faced charges of piracy and murder. It is prior to the trial that the first instance of the influence of Aristotle’s thoughts on rhetoric appears. Aristotle defined rhetoric as “an ability, in each (particular) case, to see the available means of persuasion,” (Aristotle, p.115). We see this at play with regard to Baldwin’s handling of the case’s presentation before the district court. Upon taking the Amistad case, Roger Baldwin realizes almost immediately that the only way he stands a chance of winning is by basing his defense on basic property rights. The abolitionists, unhappy with Baldwin’s chosen method of defending the case, must be convinced that this is the strongest leg they can stand on, though it is in contrast to their values. In scene 6, Baldwin says to them, “Consider this. The only way one may purchase or sell slaves is if they are born slaves. I’m right, aren’t I?” Both men must agree with this. Baldwin delivers his strategy for both instances, saying that if the captives were born slaves (on a Cuban plantation, as claimed by the prosecution), then they are possessions, and as such, no more deserving of criminal charges than “a bookcase or a plow,” and if they were not born slaves, then they were acquired illegally and should be released on the basis of being stolen goods (Amistad, scene