Summary Of My Lagoon Shook

How people see race in America can depend a lot on the society. People think that racism is a way of controlling relations among whites. American society views whites with sanctioned privileges but denied to African-Americans. In the article, “My Dungeon Shook” by James Baldwin, he writes a letter to his nephew James in 1962 telling him how to handle the countrymen and how to survive the terrifying life he has as a black man. In the book, Between the World and Me by Ta - Nehisi Coates, he also writes a letter to his son about the role of racism in the United States and mainly focuses his letter on the destruction of the black body. Also, Raoul Peck’s, filmmaker of I Am Not Your Negro, documents a journey into dark history that associates with

the past of the Civil Rights movement to the existence of Black Lives Matter. Baldwin, Coates, and I Am Not Your Negro documentary claims that while America seems to stand for equality, African Americans don’t have the same freedom privileges as whites do in society, they are only free to survive in this country.
African Americans advise the newer generation on how to survive the role of racism in American Society. Both Baldwin and Coates, write to their young ones at different times who are growing up in a world that is threatening to black lives. They both give them guiding advice on how to survive in such a racist society they are growing up in. Baldwin’s advice to his nephew James on how to survive, “[they] have not stopped trembling yet, but if [they] had not loved each other, none of [them] would have survived, and now [he] must survive because [they] love [him] and for the sake of [his] children and [his] children’s children” (Baldwin). In other words, Baldwin is advising his nephew that with love he will be able to survive just like they all did in the past. On the other hand, Coates advises his son how important it is to learn all the laws to survive. According to Coates, “[he] recalls learning these laws clearer than [he] recall learning [his] colors and shapes, because these laws were essential to the security of [his] body” (Coates 285). In other words, Coates makes it clear that it is more important to learn the laws first than anything else because that will help him survive. Although Baldwin and Coates have different ways of surviving, both show how important survival is for African-Americans to survive the part of race in America’s society.
The United States is seen as a symbol of freedom for all individuals but African Americans can’t move freely through society as a white individual would.

The letter Coates writes to his son, he talks about when he was asked about hope in the news show after the host “shared a picture of an eleven-year-old black boy tearfully hugging a white police officer” (Coates 279). After seeing that picture Coates realized why he was sad when the journalist asked him about his body. He had a dream of having the perfect house and a perfect Memorial Day, “[he] wanted to escape into the Dream, to fold [his] country over [his] head like a blanket. But this has never been an option because the Dream rests on [their] backs, the bedding made from [their] bodies” (Coates 279). In other words, due to society in his country, he wasn’t able to enjoy a perfect Memorial Day or have a perfect house because he was African-American. He wasn’t able to enjoy what others enjoyed. This shows that whites can move more freely through society and be able to enjoy things that African-Americans can’t. Likewise, in the film, the saying “Give me liberty or give me death” if a white person says it it’s okay but if a black person says word by word they are treated as criminals. This also shows how African-Americans don’t have freedom of speech as white individuals do. In the American society, whites are allowed to say anything, but if blacks say the exact words they are seen and treated worthless. Society has

created different races to move freely throughout The United States as one has more privileges than the others.
Society has turned white Americans in believing that blacks are worthless human beings under the brutal system.

According to the documentary, Baldwin says that “The Negro has never been as quiet as white Americans wanted to believe. That was a myth. [They] were not singing and dancing; [they] were trying to keep alive; [they] were trying to survive. It was a very brutal system.” In different words, white Americans wanted to believe that African-Americans were in a happy place when in reality they weren’t. There was no happiness in them there was only fear and trying their best to stay alive under the brutal system society created among them. Also, in the letter Baldwin wrote to his nephew, he says “[he] was born where [he] was born and faced the future that [he] faced because [he] was black and for no other reason” (Baldwin). Baldwin is saying that what he goes through and well go through in his future is because he is black. This shows how the American society is a brutal clarity among blacks and treat them less fairly than whites in America. Society has a lot to do with the way individuals view each race and the American Society has a role of racism against

African-Americans.