My Dungeon Shook By James Baldwin: Rhetorical Analysis

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One of the most famous quotes of the twentieth century was Winston Churchill’s claim that “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” (“History Repeating”). This quote, said shortly before the start of the civil rights movement in the United States, accurately summarizes a main hindrance of the movement as America was stuck in a cycle of committing racial injustices. With little consideration given to the country’s troubled racial history, many Americans had little to no desire to create a more racially equitable society, and the nation was perhaps more divided than it had been since the similarly race-instigated tensions of the Civil War. As a central figure in the civil rights movement, James Baldwin recognized the barriers …show more content…

Instead, he suggests to his predominantly white audience that they, like black Americans, are victims; however, unlike black Americans, their position as victims was a main reason for why they became oppressors. He explains that the true crime that white Americans are guilty of is that “they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it.It is the innocence which constitutes the crime” (“My Dungeon Shook” 1). Instead of attacking white Americans’ physical crimes, Baldwin argues that the reason that they are injuring black Americans is because they do not realize they are doing so. In his understanding, white Americans believe they are innocent and therefore continue to oppress other races without realizing their wrongdoing. Accordingly, Baldwin charges white Americans with the need to be willing to confront their history, removing the blindness of their own mistakes, which is a necessary first step to fixing the mistakes they have …show more content…

Despite, for instance, the 2014 Ferguson protests bringing widespread attention to policing injustices, the problem continued into later years, most notably the deaths of Breanna Taylor and George Floyd in 2020. In those later instances, protestors once again took to the streets in a very similar picture to the events of 2014 and earlier. Baldwin’s critique of people who do not look at the past and realize their errors continues to ring true. Nevertheless, a look at history now will show that the civil rights movement did create significant and lasting societal change with regards to race relations, so it is clear that looking at our history again, understanding both our side and the others, and accepting it as our own will create the chance of having lasting change once again. In this way, James Baldwin’s words hold true today, and looking at our history will continue to be an effective way to start solving the problems in American society. At a human level, history is something that binds all people together and explains reasons for current situations, conflicts, and

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