Summary Of The Fire Next Time Harlem By James Baldwin

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Recommended: Racial inequality and gender inequality

James Baldwin was an American novelist who was black and even gay during the Harlem era where it was not okay to be either one of those. He experienced being attacked and harassed by two police officers at the age of ten, and then continued to be harassed throughout his life. He would not give into the power they had over him and learned to fight against them with his writing. From his first Novel in 1953, he continued to write several books and essays through his life, focusing on racial justice. Repeatedly teased for being to the point where he could no longer contain his broken heart so Baldwin eventually moved to Paris, where he would no longer feel the injustice that was occurring in America. Through all of his novels, The Fire Next Time …show more content…

Harlem is pointing young minorities into the direction of drugs, alcohol, and selling yourself for money. Just walking down the street exposes undeveloped brains to the lifestyle of feeling worthless. No one wanted to hire a black man or woman due to the intolerable stereotype that they were nothing but a body. People believed that because they were a different color than them that they might be more intelligent, skilled, or even have a stronger work ethic. From the abuse the white man put the black man through they believe that they are not equal enough to have a job like the rest. Since they had limits on what they could be “school started to reveal itself, as a child’s game that one could not win, and boys dropped out of school and went to work”, leaving behind an education that could turn a small journey into a rewarding one (18). Boys started to follow this idea of not being good enough to have an education ,therefore; they stopped caring about what others thought of them and consuming drugs and alcohol in school, and eventually just dropping out and becoming nothing. Baldwins parents even encouraged him to drop out and head straight to work because they believed their son would accomplish nothing in a life that did not accept black people. The only place black people belonged was in the ghetto hustling or experimenting with drugs. Baldwin would not let himself fall into the ghetto lifestyle the white community has created for him as he would rather go to hell before letting anyone spit on

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